Nine Heavens Martial Emperor

At the foot of the Forbidden God Mountain, Lin Hao was itching for another attempt.

Having learned that Turtle Egg was asleep, Lin Hao decided to climb to the summit of the Forbidden God Mountain again.

After all, the summit of the Forbidden God Mountain had likely gone untrodden for ten thousand years. Surely, there was more Spirit Grass up there than what he had seen last time.

Recalling how Turtle Egg had devoured every last bit of Spirit Grass he’d seen last time, Lin Hao’s heart ached.

It was an outrageous waste of precious resources.

’When I get back, I’ll settle this score with you!’ Lin Hao thought, preparing to climb.

BOOM!

A demonic gust of wind struck from behind without the slightest warning, moving with incredible speed.

Lin Hao was sent flying.

Despite his incredibly tough body, the impact still left him dazed and seeing stars.

"Sorry, sorry! I lost control for a second," a voice said from behind him just as Lin Hao was about to erupt in anger.

Lin Hao’s lip twitched. ’That sounds like Turtle Egg!’

He turned to look and was momentarily stunned. There was indeed a turtle before him, but its body was nearly fifty percent larger than Turtle Egg’s had been.

"Heh heh... Startled you, didn’t I? It’s a good thing I made a few trips up the Forbidden God Mountain these past few days, otherwise I wouldn’t have grown up so healthy." The turtle’s tone was impossibly smug.

"Healthy?! Healthy my ass!" Lin Hao suddenly exploded, lashing out with a kick. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

This was clearly Turtle Egg.

Judging by its tone, it had already visited the summit of the Forbidden God Mountain several times.

At this rate, even if there had been any Spirit Grass left, it had likely all been devoured by now.

How could Lin Hao not be furious!

Turtle Egg didn’t dodge or flinch, letting Lin Hao’s foot connect with its shell. It just snickered.

"That’s it! I’ve got a plan!" Lin Hao stared at Turtle Egg and broke into a grin of his own.

Turtle Egg’s head retracted into its shell. It suddenly felt a chill run down its spine.

"What do you want?" it asked warily.

Lin Hao chuckled, climbing onto Turtle Egg’s back. "You ate all the Spirit Grass on the Forbidden God Mountain," he said. "So it’s only fitting I stew you along with that winged python. It’ll make for a great tonic."

"Ah!" Turtle Egg shrieked, its body shooting toward the Forbidden God Mountain.

Lin Hao was prepared, sitting firmly on its back, as steady as a mountain.

Its speed was indescribably fast. In no time at all, they had reached the summit.

"Just look around! I’m sure there’s some Spirit Grass left," Turtle Egg said pleadingly.

One look was all it took for Lin Hao to see red.

The summit was a total wreck, as if it had been dug up three feet deep. There was no way in hell any Spirit Grass could have survived this.

Lin Hao said nothing. Only the sound of his increasingly heavy breathing filled the air.

Perhaps sensing that Lin Hao was on the verge of an explosion, Turtle Egg hurriedly said, "I know a place with a Saint Medicine! All the Spirit Grass I ate, put together, isn’t worth a single one of its leaves in terms of effect."

Lin Hao scoffed. "If a Saint Medicine like that existed, you would’ve left it alone?"

"It’s not that I wanted to! I just couldn’t get to it," Turtle Egg muttered.

A glint appeared in Lin Hao’s eyes. "Is there really such a Saint Medicine?" he asked.

"Yes, right here on the summit of the Forbidden God Mountain!" Turtle Egg insisted.

Hearing that, Lin Hao threw a punch.

’What a load of crap.’

"Do you see that celestial stele?" Turtle Egg’s shell was so thick that Lin Hao’s punch was more like an itch. But, genuinely afraid of Lin Hao’s anger, it quickly continued.

The mountaintop was hazy, but the towering stele was still visible.

"Try to go behind the stele and take a look," Turtle Egg said.

Lin Hao jumped off, walked over, and then frowned.

He discovered that as he neared the stele, it was as if he hit an invisible wall of energy. He couldn’t get past it.

That side didn’t work, so Lin Hao tried the other, but the result was the same.

’How bizarre!’

Lin Hao clearly remembered circling this very stele several times before. Why couldn’t he get past it now?

"How about that? You can’t get past, can you?" Turtle Egg, however, didn’t seem surprised in the least.

Lin Hao whipped around. "You know why?"

"Of course! I’m a divine turtle, after all!" Turtle Egg said, as if it had no other choice.

Lin Hao pursed his lips. "A divine turtle? And a divine turtle was trapped for ten thousand years?"

Turtle Egg deflated, then burst out cursing, "Damn it! If I ever find out which bastard did this, I’ll fucking kill him!"

BOOM!

The moment the words left its mouth, a bolt of lightning suddenly slashed down from the sky.

SPURT...

A closer look revealed that Turtle Egg’s shell had been pierced, leaving a large hole that was bleeding profusely.

This made Lin Hao’s eyes narrow in concentration.

Meanwhile, Turtle Egg stared up at the sky and slowly spat out two words: "Celestial Dao..."

"You’re hurt. I’ll help you." Lin Hao’s eyes flickered as he quickly leaped onto Turtle Egg’s back.

The True Essence generated by the Godslaying Celestial Slash Skill had a miraculous healing effect. Lin Hao placed one hand on Turtle Egg’s back.

Turtle Egg hummed contentedly.

A full hour passed before Lin Hao finally stopped.

"Since you didn’t kick a man while he’s down, I’ll tell you why," Turtle Egg began.

"Ten thousand years ago, I had just been born, but I could already sense everything on the Forbidden God Mountain. Just as my curiosity was piqued, the earth suddenly began to tremble. Someone fell from the heavens and crashed onto the summit! They smashed a deep crater on one side of the celestial stele, their blood staining the yellow soil."

"About a year or two later, a plant sprouted from that crater. It was red from tip to root. I was curious, but then I saw lightning flash and thunder roar in the heavens, all of it aimed at that plant."

Hearing this, Lin Hao’s expression changed drastically.

For a mere sprout to provoke the wrath of the heavens, to be smitten by lightning—it was utterly astonishing.

"The plant was instantly charred, but the following year, it miraculously revived. Then the lightning descended once more... This continued for a full ninety-nine years. Under the barrage of lightning, the plant only grew stronger."

Lin Hao grew ever more shocked. But the story wasn’t over.

"Three thousand years later, it flowered. The lightning and thunder returned, striking it for another ninety-nine years. But once again, it endured. That flower bloomed for three thousand years, then bore fruit, which was also smitten by lightning for ninety-nine years. That was four thousand years ago, and the fruit has long since ripened."

Three thousand years to grow, three thousand years to flower, three thousand years to bear fruit. It was truly astonishing.

’On second thought, it doesn’t seem to be on par with the Yinming Tree. At most, it’s comparable to the Nine Dragon Flower.’

But it had endured three separate ninety-nine-year-long lightning tribulations.

That was simply defying the heavens!

"How do I get past?!" At this point, Lin Hao no longer cared why he couldn’t get through. He wanted that fruit.

If Turtle Egg wasn’t lying, this was definitely what one would call a Saint Medicine.

"If you hadn’t stopped to take a piss back then, you would have seen the Saint Medicine just by walking a few dozen more meters. But I doubt you could have picked it. Even if you did, you would’ve been struck dead by lightning," Turtle Egg said.

Lin Hao had the sudden urge to strangle it.

’It’s been rambling on and on, and it’s all been useless nonsense.’

"How. Do. I. Get. Past!" Lin Hao asked, enunciating every word.

Instead of answering, Turtle Egg asked, "Do you know who that fallen Martial Artist was?"

"Who?"

"If I’m not mistaken, he was Emperor Hongtian."

BOOM!

The words struck Lin Hao with a shock that was beyond measure.

Emperor Hongtian had fallen on the Forbidden God Mountain ten thousand years ago. The revelation was staggering.

"If you want to get past the celestial stele and obtain that Saint Medicine, you’ll have to wait until you receive his Cultivation Technique’s inheritance," Turtle Egg finally explained.

Lin Hao’s eyes flashed as he stared at Turtle Egg.

"Don’t look at me. I don’t know where his Cultivation Technique is, and neither does Ling Meng. You’ll have to find it yourself," Turtle Egg said, shaking its head.

Lin Hao fell silent. His intuition told him this turtle knew much more than it was letting on.

Furthermore, an absurd thought crossed Lin Hao’s mind: he seemed to have been caught in a vortex.

Ever since he had obtained the memories of the Carefree Divine Monarch, everything seemed to be moving along a predetermined trajectory.

His path was already set in stone.

He hated this feeling!

’No matter who it is, no one will control my destiny!’ In his heart, Lin Hao’s fighting spirit raged.

"Let’s go down!" Finally, Lin Hao climbed onto Turtle Egg’s back.

To say Turtle Egg’s speed was like lightning was no exaggeration. In no time, it had carried Lin Hao down the Forbidden God Mountain and up to Heaven-Stepping Peak.

"In a few days, come with me to the Danling Sect. Don’t run off anywhere until then!" Lin Hao said coolly after dismounting, then walked straight away.

Staring at Lin Hao’s departing back, Turtle Egg muttered, "I call myself a divine turtle, but I’m so stupid I could cry! Forget it, I’ll go find Little Mengmeng instead."

The lecherous turtle drooled as it crawled toward Lord Lingdi’s courtyard.

As it crawled, its body began to shrink...

Meanwhile, after leaving, Lin Hao went straight to the Saha World.

This time, he went alone.

He needed to improve his strength as quickly as possible.

For the past twenty days or so, Lin Hao had been in the Tongming Sea, fighting all sorts of Devil Beasts day and night. He barely had time to catch his breath, let alone rest.

But strangely, Lin Hao felt no fatigue whatsoever.

The Tongming Sea had a way of imperceptibly unlocking one’s potential.

In the Saha World, the moment Lin Hao entered a state of meditation, he felt something was different.

His cultivation was stronger than ever.

As the Ninth Layer of the Godslaying Celestial Slash Skill began to circulate, all sorts of strange phenomena manifested around him.

The sun and moon appeared in the sky together; Divine Flame engulfed his body; the pressure of the Great Dao bore down on him...

He cultivated like this for a full nine hours, until he was automatically teleported out.

Back in his room on Heaven-Stepping Peak, Lin Hao opened his eyes, a brilliant light flashing within them.

’Twenty days in the Tongming Sea yielded huge gains. The Great Perfection of the Blood Coagulation Realm Tenth Layer...’ Lin Hao shook his head, deeply dissatisfied with his progress.

The Tongming Sea stimulated his potential, and cultivation in the Saha World was dozens of times faster than in the outside world. Even though each session was only nine hours long, for Lin Hao, it was far superior to cultivating outside day after day.

But even so, Lin Hao had still not managed to cultivate the Blood Coagulation Realm Tenth Layer to the state of Great Perfection.

Moreover, through that recent session, Lin Hao realized it wasn’t an issue with his method of cultivation. He just felt like something was missing.

He was still missing a catalyst.

’It seems my comprehension of the Godslaying Celestial Slash Skill and the Blood Coagulation Realm is still insufficient.’ After much thought, Lin Hao identified the problem.

But moments after thinking this, he shook his head again.

’I believe my comprehension of the cultivation technique and the realm has reached its limit, and my mental state is sufficient. I firmly believe that the Blood Coagulation Realm has a tenth layer; that conviction is unshakable. But why can I still not achieve Great Perfection?’

Although his thinking had broken free from the cage of conventional martial arts, he was ultimately treading a path no one had walked before.

With no one to reference, he could only grope his way forward and seek enlightenment on his own. It was incredibly difficult.

Lin Hao pondered this question for a long time but could not find an answer.

Finally, he decided to set out early for the Danling Sect.

Perhaps out in the wider world, he would find his answer.