Chapter 557 – Ancient Tome … … … In his practice room, Lin Ming was looking over his Heavenly Demon Tattoo. The tattoo had three pairs of wings. The first two were already fully formed, and the third was quite clear. “I’m only a step away from being a six-winged Heavenly Demon. Xue Man’s infernal energy was too thickly condensed and potent. If I didn’t carefully train in suppressing my inner thoughts, then even I would have been affected by the infernal energy. Although I wouldn’t have lost my rationality, it would have still affected my character.” A human’s disposition would always change because of various factors. But, Lin Ming didn’t want his character to change because of infernal energy. Lin Ming took out Xue Man’s spatial ring and withdrew everything inside. There were several boxes of medium-grade Blood Demon Crystals and a small box of high-grade Blood Demon Crystals. There was also a massive amount of pills, jade slips, and treasures. This Xue Man was far, far richer than Lan Xing had been. Lin Ming roughly estimated the goods. There were around 80 to 90,000 medium-grade Blood Demon Crystals and over 70 high-grade Blood Demon Crystals. This was truly a terrifying amount of wealth. Xue Man killed nearly all of his opponents; it wasn’t surprising that he had accumulated this much wealth. As for those jade slips, most of them were cultivation methods and secret manuals. Xue Man came from a large fifth-grade sect. These cultivation methods were worth quite a bit, but they weren’t too useful to Lin Ming. He swept over everything and was preparing to put it away, when suddenly something caught his attention. In the messy pile, Lin Ming found a simple wooden box. As he opened the box, there was an ordinary-looking jade slip within. Near this jade slip was an extremely old tome of bound skins. Lin Ming first picked up the jade slip. Inside were some notes recorded down by Xue Man. The Goliath language was the same as the Giant Demons’. Lin Ming was completely able to understand it all. Lin Ming kept examining it, and several phrases popped up to him. One was High Lord Xue Yan. In Skysplit Tower, a ten-winged Heavenly Demon was called a High Lord. This High Lord Xue Yan was one of Polaris City’s 12 High Lords. Whenever Xue Man mentioned High Lord Xue Yan in the jade slip, his words were filled with great reverence and respect. This was a sort of respect that came from the depths of one’s heart, and even a bit of fear. This caused Lin Ming to be incomparably surprised. In his view, Xue Yan was an extremely rampant and cruel individual; how could he possibly respect someone out of his heart? Just what was so special about this High Lord Xue Yan? Besides this, there were several other words that caught Lin Ming’s attention – Eternal Demon Abyss and Demon God Bone. Xue Yan’s jade slip mentioned these things, but the records weren’t too clear. In the end, Lin Ming wasn’t able to tell what these were. Looking through, there wasn’t any more valuable information. Lin Ming then put away the jade slip and turned his eyes towards the old tome. As Lin Ming opened the tome, he saw that inside were portraits of Giant Demon and Goliath martial artists. They should have been rubbed off and copied from stone carvings. Near every portrait was written the person’s name, brief life story, and also their specific cultivation. Most of them were Demon Emperor level powerhouses. Among these individuals were characters from tens of thousands of years ago and even ones from just a few thousand years ago. Without exception, they all shared one trait. All of them… had died. Regardless of what sort of peerless, legendary talents they had once been, or what sort of overweeningly arrogant, undefeatable existence they were, whose mere presence could move the entire Holy Demon Continent… all of them had died. Who were these people? Why were their portraits rubbed into this tome? How else were they connected to each other? As Lin Ming was lost in his thoughts, his mind suddenly shook. In the tome, there was a face that he had seen before. This person held a bloody 10 foot long axe. He had a full head of flaming hair, and his expression was grim and dark. This face was similar to that of the fierce red demon that Lin Ming had seen when he absorbed the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal. Could it be… Lin Ming’s eyes fell over to the notes of this portrait. In them was written: “Netherworld Great Emperor. Born in the Holy Demon Calendar year of 36,500, died in the Holy Demon Calendar year of 39,700. He lived for over three thousand years. This man’s talent was comparable to a Demon God. He achieved the Demon King realm at 24 years of age, entered into the quasi Emperor realm at 50 years of age, and reached Large Success of the Devil Arts at 60 years of age, entering into the Emperor realm. The Netherworld Great Emperor searched for 100 years to find a rival. Finally, he strangely went missing, falling from the sky after 3000 years. His cause of death is still unknown.” After Lin Ming saw these notes, he was dumbfounded. The Netherworld Great Emperor who had founded the Silent Demon Emperor City was actually in this tome! Without a doubt, the unknown cause of his disappearance was because he went to the Sky Spill Continent. Since he had gone to the Sky Spill Continent, how could the author of this tome have known where he had gone or if he had perished? Lin Ming was lost in thought as he continued to read. After several pages, he saw a surprising figure – the Demon Emperor. “The Demon Emperor is actually in this tome?” Lin Ming sucked in a breath of cold air. Compared to the 3000 year old Netherworld Great Emperor, the Demon Emperor was far different. He lived for tens of thousands of years before finally soaring up into the Realm of the Gods. Even there, he was a heaven-shaking figure. Finally, he had joined in the siege of the Verdant Feather Holy Land. He was truly a legend among legends. This figure that had existed tens of thousands of years ago had very little information left behind about him that still existed. Even so, this ancient tome actually had it recorded? As Lin Ming looked over the notes near the Demon Emperor’s portrait, there was only a handful of words. “Demon Emperor. His birth was ominous and his death was ominous. Cause of death is unclear.” They even knew that the Demon Emperor had died? Lin Ming felt his heart go cold. The Demon Emperor had died in the Realm of the Gods. After suppressing his shock, Lin Ming continued flipping through the tome. The figures behind were from tens of thousands of years ago. Some didn’t even have names, let alone cultivation realms. Halfway through the tome, not only were there Giant Demons and Goliaths, but even humans, Fey, and other races began to appear. Of course, these were all earth-shaking peerless geniuses of their times. Most of them were at the Emperor level. Those that hadn’t reached the Emperor level were those that had died at a young age. Normally, this was below 50 years of age. But all of these individuals that perished were the absolute heaven-defying talents of their generation. They often reached the Revolving Core realm at 24 or 25 years of age, and then stepped into the Life Destruction realm at 30 to 40 years of age. In other words, these individuals might not have reached the Emperor level, but if they hadn’t died they definitely would have become Peerless Emperors! This tome had recorded all the top geniuses for the last tens of thousands of years. “Since this ancient tome is a collection of rubbed images, there should originally be carvings somewhere. But just who carved so many powerhouses?” Lin Ming couldn’t help but wonder this question. It had to be known that the powerhouses here were all extremely secretive in their actions. So how could the sculptor know whether or not they died? Not just that, but the portraits in this tome all had extremely lifelike expressions. For instance, the Netherworld Great Emperor and the Demon Emperor were all extremely similar to what Lin Ming had seen in his memories. But the Demon Emperor was a character from tens of thousands of years ago, so how could someone possibly know how to carve his visage? Lin Ming’s heart filled with doubts. Since he couldn’t figure out the reason, he closed the tome and placed it back into his spatial ring. “It’s useless worrying about this now. My match with Xing Tian is only in one month. I have to seize all the time I have left to practice.” After Lin Ming killed Xue Man, he had accumulated an additional seven slaughter points. In addition to his own two slaughter points, he now had nine in total. This was enough for him to freely practice in a top-grade area. Lin Ming took out some high-grade Blood Demon Crystals from his spatial ring. He grasped one in his hand and placed nine more on the ground beside him. Using 10 high-grade Blood Demon Crystals together could be considered an ultimate luxury. Even someone like Xue Man would only use a single high-grade Blood Demon Crystal at a time and never do something so wasteful. It had to be known that Xue Man only had 70 some high-grade Blood Demon Crystals in his spatial ring. If he used them so extravagantly then they would only last at most ten days. Lin Ming did not care about the costs at all. As long as he could increase his cultivations speed, any price was worth it. The ‘Great Desolate Halberd Art’ was originally a top cultivation method manual. In addition to the rich infernal energy in this top-grade practice area, the support of a six-winged Heavenly Demon Tattoo, and the function of the ethereal martial intent, Lin Ming’s cultivation speed could be called astronomical. And like this, ten days passed. All of the high-grade Blood Demon Crystals were completely used up. Lin Ming left his practice room and went straight to the second floor’s city square. He found the fat Fey that he contacted several days ago. As soon as the fat vendor saw Lin Ming, his entire face was covered with a humble smile. Ten days ago, the story of Lin Ming killing Xue Man had already spread throughout the entire second floor. The fat vendor was very clear as to how strong Xue Man was, yet such a legendary figure had died under Lin Ming’s hands. Now that he saw Lin Ming, he felt his heart jump. “Young Hero Lin, how may I help you?” The fat vendor asked with his hands down, a respectful smile plastered on his lips. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮 “Have you exchanged for high-grade Blood Demon Crystals as I requested?” “Yes, there should be a total of 100. Please count them.” The fat vendor took out a box and opened it. The inside shined with radiant high-grade Blood Demon Crystals. Lin Ming glanced over it; the number was correct. “As according to our agreement, 100 of these is a total of 11,500 medium-grade Blood Demon Crystals. I’ll give them to you now.” As Lin Ming spoke, he took out 11 boxes of Blood Demon Crystals. The fat vendor nervously laughed, “Young Hero Lin is too polite. Well, how about we go with the lowest price; I don’t want to overcharge you. 10,000 crystals should be fine!” “We’ll go with what we agreed.” Lin Ming counted out 11,500 medium-grade Blood Demon Crystals. He wanted to exchange the massive amount of medium-grade crystals he had for high-grade ones as soon as possible. If he shorted the fat vendor of money, then he might be able to trade one or two more times, but eventually the fat vendor wouldn’t be able to endure the loss and Lin Ming would have to find someone else. “Then I… thank Young Hero Lin.” The fat vendor laughed, his eyes narrowing. “I’m only doing what’s necessary. This time I want to trade for more high-grade Blood Demon Crystals; the more the better. Also, I want to have you sell some things for me on commission. I’ll give you a 5% cut. Don’t play tricks on me. I have a general idea of how much it will be.” As Lin Ming spoke, he took a spatial ring off his hand and tossed it over to the fat vendor. The fat vendor immersed his soul force into the spatial ring and casually swept through it. He suddenly became secretly startled. Nothing in this ring was of low value. The treasures were mostly left over after Lan Xing and Xue Man’s deaths. If he completely sold everything, including the jade slips, pills, and so on, then it would be no less than 100,000 medium-grade Blood Demon Crystals. If he could take a 5% cut, then that was 5000 medium-grade Blood Demon Crystals. This was not a small amount of wealth. The fat vendor’s breath quickened. He puffed out his chest and slapped it in guarantee. “Young Hero Lin, please feel relieved. I will never have the guts to take advantage of you!” “It’s best if you can change them all into high-grade Blood Demon Crystals. I have no need for medium-grade ones.” “Young Hero Lin, rest assured, I will handle this matter with absolute grace.”