Chapter 2078 – Retaking the Divine Realm ... ... ... In these past years, Lin Ming felt a great pressure on his shoulders and he had experienced far too many tribulations. After arriving at an absolutely safe place like Tragic Death Valley, he immediately relaxed. This was an array formation that the Asura Road Master had personally laid down in the past. Even someone on the level of Soaring Feather God King would have a hard time freely entering and leaving as they pleased. And, no one could expect that he would hide here. While inside he was absolutely safe. Lin Ming began his seclusion. There were too many matters he had to complete; just absorbing the memories in Famine’s soul would take an extremely long time. Lin Ming needed to go to the Dark Abyss, and without Famine’s memories as a guide, then a single human entering was no different from a sheep wandering into a wolf den. He had to protect himself, and the greatest measure with which to do so was Famine. The years passed without sense of time. Lin Ming fell into an absorbed state. He didn’t know how much time passed, only that his hair constantly grew longer, brushing against the ground and still growing. Dust rose and fell on his body. At certain intervals, waves of demonic energy would rise up and the dust on Lin Ming would fly away. However, he steadfastly sat there like a rock. When Lin Ming first entered the Asura Road he was already just barely able to deal with the demonic energy tides in Tragic Death Valley. Now, he was like a reef in front of a breeze, simply not feeling it at all. But Lin Ming’s clothes slowly tore apart. As several demonic energy tides rose, they wore away at his clothes. Soon, he became utterly naked. Every now and then his exposed skin would glow red; he was absorbing Famine’s essence! To Lin Ming, Famine’s avatar was powerful, but it was only slightly more powerful than himself. With sufficient time Lin Ming would surpass Famine’s avatar in strength, and by that time the avatar would be weak. Thus, the most effective method for Lin Ming to use the avatar of Famine was to absorb its essence to further develop himself. As time passed, Lin Ming absorbed more and more of Famine’s energy into his body. Not only did he absorb a massive amount of pure demon energy, but he also absorbed the Laws within it. Faintly, Lin Ming seemed to arrive in a chaotic space. Deep within this chaotic space, a massive black hole of space-time slowly revolved. As energy neared this black hole it would be sucked in. Seeing this, Lin Ming froze. This was... Laws of Swallowing!? Lin Ming sucked in a deep breath. Famine’s flesh and blood and even its soul contained the secrets to the Laws of Swallowing. After absorbing Famine’s soul and now absorbing Famine’s flesh and blood, all of Famine’s essence was being transferred to his body. Then... Perhaps he could also peek into the deepest secrets of the Laws of Swallowing and begin plundering talent like Famine could. Of course, it was impossible for Lin Ming to do this to a such a heaven-defying degree like Famine could. But, it would be good enough if he could inherit a tiny portion of the talent in the Laws of Swallowing. Disregarding everything else, just his speed in absorbing world energy in the future would be incomparable to the present. To swallow. In Lin Ming’s mind, these weren’t the methods of the enemy, but a new shortcut that would allow him to grow faster! With these intentions in mind, Lin Ming no longer hesitated. He composed his mind and poured all of his mental strength into Famine’s flesh and blood, greedily absorbing nutrition from its essence. Unknowingly and unwittingly, 100 years passed. Outside this was only ten years. In these ten years, Lin Ming’s two children were born. One was a boy and one was a girl. Mu Qianyu gave birth to a boy named Lin Yu, and Qin Xingxuan gave birth to a girl named Lin Xuan. The names of these two children came from both their mother and father. Lin Yu and Lin Xuan’s talents were slightly worse than Lin Huang’s. But, they had inherited Lin Ming’s Asura bloodline, and if they cultivated in the future they were sure to become extraordinary individuals. Another ten years passed. In the Divine Realm, the war between humanity and the saints raged like a blazing conflagration. Because Soaring Feather and Astral Vault withdrew from the war, humanity’s ability to face their opponents on the battlefield was no less than the saints’. Many territories in the Divine Realm had already been reclaimed by humanity. As the human refugees scattered throughout the Divine Realm saw the return of their fellow comrades, all of them sobbed in joy. No one could understand what they felt after waiting for this moment for more than 6000 years. They were happy, so happy that even if they died they could die in peace... In terms of the great war between humanity and the saints, a mere 20 years of fighting was in truth only a short period of time. It would take much longer to reclaim the Divine Realm. After all, the Divine Realm itself had 3000 great worlds. The battles in the wild universe alone had continued for several hundred years. Now, the great effort to retake the Divine Realm would require at least several hundred years before they could truly reclaim their land. But, during the third decade of the effort to retake the Divine Realm, the saint armies began to retreat. They relinquished Divine Realm great worlds they had seized on their own initiative, riding on spirit ships to flee back to Saint Convocation Heaven. Soldiers receded like a falling tide. With the saints retreating, the human armies were able to push in without facing any obstacles. The human warriors were incomparably excited. However, the several human Empyreans leading the war were startled; they hadn’t expected such a result to occur. “The saints are retreating. What should we do?” Emperor Shakya asked Divine Dream. He was asking whether or not they should chase down the armies of the saints. Without a doubt, the saints were retreating because the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign was in seclusion. Because the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign couldn’t be interrupted midway, the saints had decided to return to Saint Convocation Heaven where they could regroup and maintain their strength. With the death of the Good Fortune Saint Son, the withdrawal of Soaring Feather God King, Astral Vault God King, as well as their subordinates such as Blue Lotus and the others, that meant the saints had no highest leader to turn to. To return to Saint Convocation Heaven was an intelligent move in these circumstances. When humanity took back the Divine Realm, it hadn’t been easy for them even though this was territory they were profoundly aware of. If they were to march into Saint Convocation Heaven and face the unknown breadth of the saint armies from the seven Heavens of the saints, then this would be far too risky a move. It was unwise to pursue a hard-pressed enemy too far, much less an army that was deep in enemy territory. However, Divine Dream still issued the order to give pursuit. This was because with her presence, she could maintain the integrity of the human fleets. Divine Dream knew that it was impossible for humanity to seize the Saint Convocation Heaven no matter how much they chased after their enemies. She knew that besides annihilating some of the saints’ overall war strength, there weren’t any advantages to be had. But, she would still continue the pursuit. Even if this was only a tribute to the countless martyrs who had died bravely in battle in the wild universe! The blood of humanity couldn’t be bled in vain. She needed to give those heroic martyrs an answer to their deeds! This battle continued for another 30 years. Humanity’s war in the Saint Convocation Heaven was even more difficult. Humanity had yet to recover their energy. In terms of Empyrean level characters, they only had a bit more than 100 and only 2000 some Great World Kings. Although Divine Dream was powerful, she was only a single person. This would be the same if the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign went to the wild universe to fight. The human Empyreans would immediately hide away, making it so that the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign wouldn’t be able to kill many of them. And now, with Divine Dream battling in the Saint Convocation Heaven, the saint Empyreans naturally wouldn’t line up so that Divine Dream could slaughter them. Thus, Divine Dream’s greatest function was to protect the main force of humanity and threaten. With Divine Dream, the human armies did not fear frontally facing the saints, nor did they fear being surrounded. However Divine Dream couldn’t replace the human armies in fighting. To annihilate the armies of the saints, what humanity truly relied on were their Empyreans, World Kings, and Holy Lords. The size of the human armies was far too small. It was simply impossible for them to wage war throughout the seven Heavens of the saint race. Soon, the fight reached an impasse. The saints actively avoided battle. In this situation, humanity wasn’t able to achieve much. To further expand their war victories, they could only destroy planets of saints and wipe out massive amounts of low level saint martial artists. But if they did this then they would be no different from the saints, and perhaps might even be worse. Thus, on the fiftieth year, the human armies returned to the Divine Realm. The moment that the armies withdrew, the Divine Realm wildly cheered in revelry and celebration! Countless people cried out hot tears. They had paid a deep price for over 6000 years, putting in generations of effort, and now they finally had their homeland back! They had preserved their dignity, had preserved the bravery of their bloodline. Although this was only temporary, they had all firmed their resolve. No matter how the saints counterattacked in the future, they would continue fighting on to the last person. With humanity’s victory, two names shined ever brighter in human history. These two names were – Human Sovereign Lin Ming and Heavenly Empress Divine Dream. No one referred to Divine Dream as Empyrean Divine Dream anymore, but started to call her the Heavenly Empress. This corresponded to Lin Ming. Within the heavens and earth, Lin Ming was the Human Sovereign and Divine Dream was the Heavenly Empress. One Sovereign one Empress, these were similar to the names of the spiritas’ Soul Emperor and Soul Empress. ‘Emperor’, ‘Sovereign’, ‘Empress’, these were some of the highest titles give to men and women in humanity; they were unrelated to whether or not one was married. While the Divine Realm was being rebuilt, Lin Ming was still deep in seclusion. 70 years had passed outside, meaning 700 years within Tragic Death Valley. During these 700 years Lin Ming had already started the seventh cycle of the Grand Reincarnation Art. The energy needed to recultivate from the start of a reincarnation came from the avatar of Famine. And during the process of fusing with this energy, Lin Ming started to slowly touch upon Famine’s Laws of Swallowing. Bit by bit he imprinted Famine’s talent to swallow into himself. By now, Lin Ming was completely able to control the power of demons. If he camouflaged himself as an abyssal then no one would suspect him, and they would even think he was a high-level existence amongst abyssals. This paved the way for Lin Ming to enter the Dark Abyss. Otherwise, a human entering the abyss was no different from suicide. After 700 years of cultivation, Lin Ming’s foundation had consolidated. This gave him the ambition to attack the middle Empyrean realm while in Tragic Death Valley. Another 500 years passed. Lin Ming had reached the peak of the lower Empyrean realm. Strength gathered crazily within him. The planet-sized avatar of Famine gave him strength without end. In addition to the talent of swallowing he had now, absorbing the flesh and blood essence of Famine came as easily as drinking water to Lin Ming. Lin Ming’s cultivation speed couldn’t even be described as travelling 10,000 miles in a day. After staying in Tragic Death Valley for 1500 years, he finally felt he had accumulated sufficient strength. The conditions were ripe. It was time to break into the middle Empyrean realm.