Arc 4: Rising in Power in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence

　　Su Ming’s body was gradually covered by snow as he walked into the distance. At the moment he put on the mask on his face, his level of cultivation immediately started rising and reached great completion in Life Matrix from the later stage of that Realm. As he left, the presence belonging to Life Privation filled his body.

　　A thick wave of aura of death turned into a ring in his body, but even though he was in Life Privation Realm, Su Ming still did not stop moving. Instead, he kept on coldly walking into the distance.

　　As he did so, the blue sky in the land of Berserkers started withdrawing layer by layer to reveal the gigantic Yin Death Vortex behind it. That vortex was rotating slowly and letting out booming sounds.

　　Those sounds were like roars as they reverberated in the air. It almost felt like they were screaming a chant that no one could understand.

　　Soon, the vortex in the sky started rotating faster. As it spun, Su Ming lifted his head amidst the snow and wind falling around him. The black mask he wore on his face was incredibly cold, making his gaze full of mercilessness and heartlessness.

　　He was dressed entirely in white. At that moment, besides feeling cold, he also radiated a sense of apathy towards life. He slowly flew up into the sky, towards the vortex.

　　“Welcome, Yin Death’s Child of Yin Death’s Fragmented Worlds… I didn’t expect that you would put on the mask before the seven days ended…” the ancient voice said slowly from the vortex, and there was not a hint of emotion that could be detected within it.

　　“Noisy.”

　　The masked Su Ming spoke coldly. The icy chill in his words seemed to be able to make even the vortex freeze for a moment. His blunt manner of speech, however, contained absolutely no hint of emotion, which brought a pause to the old voice in the vortex. However, after that slight pause, he let out a loud bark of laughter.

　　“Good. As expected of Yin Death’s Child who lost his ability to feel and sense of pain. I will open the path for you and send you to the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. This relocation will use up a large amount of energy we’ve stored over countless years in Yin Death’s Fragmented Worlds. I… wish success upon you!”

　　As that old voice laughed, Yin Death Vortex started rotating swiftly in the sky. Soon, a large hole appeared at the center of the vortex.

　　That hole was pitch black, but there were bolts of purple lightning swimming within it. At the instant it appeared, Su Ming turned into a long arc and charged inside.

　　Su Ming continued getting closer to the hole, and he soon appeared beyond it. At the instant he got there, he stopped moving for a moment and turned his head to look at the ground beneath him.

　　When he stood at the highest spot in the sky, the continents in the land of Berserkers seemed to have shrank several times. He could see all of them at once. His gaze moved from the Alliance of the Western Region to South Morning. As he looked at it, he could vaguely see the ninth summit.

　　He could see his second senior brother walking out of the cave abode. Hu Zi was right behind him… as well as eldest senior brother, who had recovered from his petrified state.

　　However, Su Ming’s gaze was aloof, so aloof that it would make all those who were familiar with him feel that he had become a stranger. Su Ming turned his head back and no longer looked at the ground. He lifted his foot and stepped into the hole.

　　Almost at the instant he did so, the bald crane behind him let out a piercing screech. Its body turned into a long arc that could slice through the air, and the moment Su Ming stepped into the hole, it… followed closely behind him!

　　The Barren Lands of Divine Essence existed in a vast galaxy. It was not part of Yin Death Region, and more accurately speaking, it existed in the same galaxy as Bright Yang Emptiness, which was where the four True Great Worlds were, and which was located outside Yin Death Region.

　　This place was the place where the criminals who had committed heinous crimes but were too difficult to kill were banished in the four Great True Worlds. There were all sorts of malicious fiends in there, and big armies formed by numerous powerful warriors from the four Great True Worlds would take turns once every five thousand years to fend against the Barren Lands of Divine Essence.

　　They were not just fending against the place to prevent those who had been judged to be criminals to return to the four Great True Worlds, but were also fending against the members of the alien race from the Barren Lands of Divine Essence.

　　There was an endless amount of abandoned cultivation planets within the galaxy in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. A large amount of poisonous air filled the entire abandoned galaxy. The strength of poison was enough to make all those who were somewhat weaker to begin rotting away and die.

　　The Barren Lands of Divine Essence were incredibly big, but very few knew just how big they were. Rumors had it that it was once an incredibly fertile place, but the war between the four Great True Worlds against the so called alien races had caused this place to become a barren piece of land.

　　There were plenty of entrances to the Barren Lands of Divine Essence, but only one exit was discovered over the years. There was a seal at the exit. It had been placed by the four Great True Worlds, and it was the spot where a large number of powerful warriors from the four Great True Worlds had gathered to fend against the criminals.

　　It was like a ravine, and it had withstood plenty of attacks that were sent from the Barren Lands of Divine Essence over the years.

　　It was a ravine formed by more than thousands of cultivation planets. They had gathered together to form a huge Rune that sealed off and locked down space, so the Barren Lands of Divine Essence were tightly closed off.

　　In fact, there was a powerful suppressive Art at this exit. It was part of what was used to fend against the alien races from the Barren Lands of Divine Essence.

　　The criminals who had committed heinous crimes from the four Great True Worlds had been banished to this place because this meant that they’d have to confront the alien races. Those who sent them here wanted to make them fight the alien races for the resources and a chance at survival in this abandoned galaxy that was barren of resources.

　　Living was a desire in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. Only if people lived would they have endless possibilities. However, the absence of resources, lack of food, and chaos in the spiritual energy caused devastating fights to become frequent. They occured often since people needed to fight for all kinds of resources.

　　All of this was what the four Great True Worlds wished to see and would be overjoyed to come true. As long as they sealed the exit and often sent criminals in there, then as time passed, this place would slowly fall to ruin.

　　It was not as if there were no loopholes to this plan, but over the countless years the four Great True Worlds kept this place under watch, almost all loopholes had been slowly filled up using all sorts of methods, turning this place into a sort of hell.

　　This place was indeed hell. It was a cage, a crazed wasteland of resources that would help a person become a deity. The battle between the four Great True Worlds and the alien races and the deaths over the countless years had caused the Barren Lands of Divine Essence to be filled with boundless aura of death. The density of it in this place might not match that in Yin Death Region, but the difference wasn’t great.

　　In fact, there were certain places where the aura of death was even thicker than that in Yin Death Region, but similarly, there were also certain regions where the aura of death was thin.

　　Su Ming laid on a ground that was bloody red in color. A bloody stench that would make anyone nauseous filled the air as it mixed with heat. This was an abandoned cultivation planet full of volcanoes. In fact, there were quite of them that were constantly erupting, so the air was filled with something that would burn in the body once someone breathed it in.

　　Su Ming had been lying there for three days, and it was the place he had first appeared once he entered the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. The large amount of poisonous air and the thin aura of death made this planet to not be very suitable for habitation in the Barren Lands of Divine Essence. However, it could still be marginally accepted as a place where people could live.

　　Yet due to this thin aura of death, Su Ming felt as if his body was melting, and a large amount of black aura seeped out of him. It wasn’t the first time he’d ran into such an event, though. It just meant that the density of the aura of death in this place was not thick enough, so his body, which originated from Yin Death, was unable to get used to it. What was happening to him was a form of aging.

　　Usually, at this point of time, pain would fill Su Ming’s body and try to submerge him within itself like tidal waves, but this time… he was calmly looking at the sky calmly and quietly watching the muddled sky. Not a single part of his body was aching.

　　Because he had lost his sense of pain.

　　The sky here was muddled and gave off a feeling of authenticity which Su Ming had never sensed before. This was a real sky filled with stars, not the sky that was an illusion formed over the Yin Death Vortex above the land of Berserkers.

　　The aging and melting of his body lasted three days. The vast amounts of poisonous air in the area rotted Su Ming’s clothes, and as his body melted and recovered, hideous boils gradually appeared on his skin.

　　However, Su Ming seemed to be completely unaware of this. He continued lying there while looking at the sky. No one knew what he was thinking about. The mask on his face had also slowly melted away once he reached the Barren Lands of Divine Essence, as if it had buried itself deep into his skin. It looked as if it had disappeared, revealing Su Ming’s pale face, but in truth, it was still around. Su Ming could sense its existence.

　　The bald crane was lying by the side in the form of a red stone. There was a pair of eyes on that stone that were staring at Su Ming anxiously. The poisonous air in this place made the bald crane feel extremely uncomfortable, but it did not begin melting and aging like Su Ming due to the lack of aura of death in this place.

　　It had turned into a stone because for some unknown reason this place felt very familiar. The bald crane had a sense that if someone noticed its crane form, it would end up in a very wretched state.

　　That was why it had instinctively chosen to turn into this form beside Su Ming.

　　Time trickled by. When the third evening arrived and the heat and poisonous air in the world dispersed slightly, a glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. When he looked at the sky in the distance coldly, the eyes on the stone that was the bald crane were also immediately hidden.

　　Soon, rapid footsteps came from the distance. It sounded like there were eight thin people moving there. Once those people revealed themselves, Su Ming saw that they were carrying corpses over their shoulders and seemed to be about to pass by the place.

　　Suddenly, a frail middle-aged man who was the leader of the group and who was so thin that he was just skin and bones but had incredibly bright eyes that were shining brilliantly while he carried a rotting corpse over his shoulders stopped moving. Once he stopped, the seven people behind him also stopped.

　　The middle-aged man was dressed in a long purple robe. There were many areas that had been damaged on that robe, and it was incredibly large, a telling sign that this did not originally belong to the frail middle-aged man.

　　When he stopped moving, his eyes sparkled, and he looked towards Su Ming lying in the distance. When he did so, a person behind him put down the corpse he had over his shoulder and charged towards Su Ming.

　　He was so quick that he instantly closed a distance of several thousands of feet. A wave of power that would not lose to Su Ming’s own circled around him. The person himself was a thin, emaciated old man with a hunched back. Once he arrived beside Su Ming, he looked into Su Ming’s aloof eyes and suddenly started laughing.

　　“Leader, there is one more offering here we can sacrifice to our god, and he even hasn’t died yet.”