In the spacious room, the radiant light of the array gathered in the center like moonlight, enveloping a Jade Platform.
The translucent Jade Platform looked even more exquisite under the flashing light, which also illuminated the exquisitely carved box resting upon it, making it gleam. Carved onto the box was a motif of an Overlord descending a mountain. Fierce and rigid, it exuded waves of tyrannical dominance. From within, the Overlord’s roars echoed, rumbling and sweeping through the entire room.
Art of Kingship and Domination!
Lin Huang kept his eyes fixed on the box, silently feeling the roars in the room. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. The sound of Dominance was indeed extraordinary. Just the roars emanating from the Martial Technique made the qi and blood within him surge, causing his Profound Sea to churn.
"As expected of a Quasi-Earth Tier Martial Skill!" Lin Huang murmured to himself before walking toward the Jade Platform.
"Be careful. The closer you get to the Jade Platform, the stronger the sound of the Martial Technique becomes. Its power can even form attacks capable of injuring a person’s soul!" Yann Qing’er, who had appeared on the sixth floor at some unknown point, warned as she watched Lin Huang’s back.
Lin Huang nodded slightly. In this world, any high-level Martial Technique possessed its own will to some extent; they were not something just any Martial Artist could cultivate. To cultivate such a Martial Technique, one first had to pass its test. The sounds currently emanating from the Art of Kingship and Domination were exactly that—a test for anyone who dared to lay hands on it for cultivation.
Inside the room, Lin Huang calmly approached the Jade Platform. With every step, he felt the pressure multiply. The sound of Dominance ringing in his ears grew increasingly intense and terrifying, like a surging tide trying to expel him. Lin Huang, however, remained entirely composed. Although his progress was slow, every step was extremely resolute, as unwavering as Panshi.
Behind him, Yann Qing’er looked at Lin Huang’s figure with a hint of surprise. She remembered that when Xie Qinghou came here, he hadn’t walked as calmly as Lin Huang. The powerful, imposing aura of the Martial Technique’s sound seemed to have little effect on him.
What Yann Qing’er didn’t know was that Lin Huang had never feared anything when it came to oppressive auras. The thousand-foot waterfall at the Celestial Waterfall Cliff was a terrifying aura in itself. Not to mention that Lin Huang had once endured ten years of being hunted down and besieged by countless powerhouses. Although Lin Huang’s Realm was low at the moment and his movements were quite difficult, this mere coercion from the sound of a Martial Technique was not enough to overcome him.
Gradually, the box on the Jade Platform came within Lin Huang’s reach.
BOOM!
Another terrifying roar violently erupted in the room, scaring Yann Qing’er into hurriedly covering her ears. Lin Huang’s face also paled, clearly finding it extremely difficult to bear. At this moment, the phantom of an Overlord had appeared in Lin Huang’s mind, charging madly toward his sea of consciousness like a demon.
Lin Huang furrowed his brows. He hadn’t expected the sound of the Martial Technique to silently invade his sea of consciousness and condense into the figure of an Overlord. Seeing this, the corners of his mouth curled up. The Celestial Asura within his body emerged from the Profound Sea and charged toward the Overlord formed by the soundwaves.
The ensuing scene nearly made Lin Huang’s jaw drop.
He watched as the Celestial Asura grabbed Dominance and dragged it out of his sea of consciousness. Without a word, it kicked the phantom into the Profound Sea and rained thunderous blows upon the Overlord with its iron fists. The scene looked exactly like a father beating his son!
In the beginning, the Overlord was still tough enough to fight back, issuing bursts of roars. Its burly body stood tall, attempting to stomp the Asura Martial Soul flat. But later on, it was as if the Overlord had kicked a steel plate; it was suppressed at every turn. Although it was more than three times taller than the Celestial Asura, it acted like a two-hundred-pound infant, completely powerless to resist.
"Suppression of dominance?!" Lin Huang murmured as he felt the great battle within his Profound Sea.
This situation in his Profound Sea wasn’t because the Overlord was weak, but because the Asura Martial Soul carried an innate dominance and killing intent. Under the suppression of this natural dominance, the Overlord had nowhere to exert its power. Had it not been for the Celestial Asura, the Overlord would likely have turned everything upside down by now.
In the room, Lin Huang watched the figure of Dominance gradually disappear from his Profound Sea and smiled faintly. His slender hand slowly opened the box on the Jade Platform.
Before his eyes lay a quiet scroll. Its entire body was pitch-black, and the roller was sharply carved with Black Dragon motifs, looking quite domineering and majestic. Two words, written in a messy yet bold script, leaped out from the surface: Dominance!
"Dominance?" Lin Huang frowned, then turned his head and asked Yann Qing’er, "Little Tiger, why is there only Dominance in here, and no Kingship?"
"Kingship and Dominance cannot be cultivated simultaneously. To prevent the Sect’s disciples from cultivating them recklessly, the Scripture Pavilion only holds Dominance!" Yann Qing’er explained.
Lin Huang nodded thoughtfully. No wonder he had only heard the sound of Dominance and seen the image of the Overlord earlier, but had not seen the form of an Emperor!
Subsequently, Lin Huang unrolled the scroll.
"All Martial Techniques in heaven and earth have their paths. Emperors, Overlords, Princes, good, evil, and killing are all paths. I was once fortunate enough to leave the East Spirit Realm and witness a battle between Kingship and Dominance. Inspired, I sat in dry meditation on Piaoxue Peak for three years, comprehending the minutest essence of the King’s Path, which I called Kingship. After twenty-seven more years, I comprehended a sliver of the Mystical Techniques of the Tyrant Path, which I called Dominance. When the two are combined, it is named the Art of Kingship and Domination."
The opening of the Martial Technique was an autobiography by a Martial Artist, who was likely the founding ancestor of Piaoxue Palace. The general meaning was that this person had once stepped out of the East Spirit Realm and witnessed a duel between a Martial Artist manifesting the King’s Path and another manifesting the Tyrant Path, from which he gained some enlightenment. After returning to the East Spirit Realm, this person meditated for three years and finally grasped a trace of the Mystical Techniques of the King’s Path, creating a Martial Technique called Kingship. Twenty-seven years later, he comprehended a trace of the Mystical Techniques of the Tyrant Path and created the Martial Technique Dominance. The combination of the two Martial Techniques was the Art of Kingship and Domination.
However, at the very end of the scroll, there was another record that seemed to have been added by a later generation. It stated that while the combined power of the Art of Kingship and Domination was extremely astonishing, the two Martial Techniques clashed with each other. If one person cultivated both, they would only explode and die. Even the ancestral founder who originally created the Art of Kingship and Domination failed to live past a hundred years of age before departing from this world.
"The Art of Kingship and Domination... The arrogance behind this name is certainly not small!" Lin Huang clicked his tongue as he held the quaint scroll in the room. He hadn’t expected the name Dominance to originate from this, nor did he expect it to contain a trace of enlightenment regarding the Dao.
Martial Arts, Martial Arts. First, one cultivated the martial, and then one entered the Dao.
Although there were many Martial Marquis Powerhouses in the East Spirit Realm, they were merely practicing martial skills. Only upon reaching the Martial King Realm could one be considered to have truly opened the door to the Dao. Xiao Yishan had also said this before.
The fact that Dominance contained a sliver of the Dao’s Mystical Techniques intrigued Lin Huang greatly. After all, the Piaoxue Palace ancestral founder who created this Cultivation Technique had only been in the Half-Step Martial Marquis Realm at the time. Yet, he was able to sit in dry meditation for thirty years and create the Art of Kingship and Domination. He must have been an astoundingly brilliant individual.
Thinking of this, Lin Huang placed a bit more importance on the Martial Technique in his hand. Even though it was only Quasi-Earth Tier, inferior to his current Godslaying One Slash, its origins were quite extraordinary. After all, this Martial Technique harbored a trace of the Dao’s Mystical Techniques.
Subsequently, Lin Huang quickly scanned the scroll, memorizing it word for word from beginning to end.
"Qing’er, Dominance is in the Scripture Pavilion, but where is Kingship?" Having memorized it, Lin Huang asked Yann Qing’er beside him.
Yann Qing’er tilted her head and thought for a moment before saying uncertainly, "I don’t remember clearly. It might be in the hands of Great Ancestor Cangfeng!"
"Yann Cangfeng?!" Lin Huang pondered for a moment. He hadn’t paid much attention to this former legend. Come to think of it, he had been in seclusion for over sixty or seventy years. Who knew what Realm he had reached by now? How did he compare to the current Xuanyuan Tibing?
Speaking of which, Lin Huang and Yann Cangfeng actually shared some history. Yann Cangfeng was a Registered Disciple of Xiao Yishan, while Lin Huang was an Inner Chamber Disciple of Xiao Yishan. Strictly speaking, the two of them were fellow disciples. Calculating it this way...
Lin Huang’s eyes lit up. It seemed his seniority in Piaoxue Palace was incredibly high. Looking at Yann Qing’er, a sly smile touched his clear eyes as he wondered, "What should this girl call me? Great Ancestral Martial Uncle?"
Seeing Lin Huang’s strange smile, Yann Qing’er’s exquisite little face flushed red. Biting her crystalline lower lip, she huffed, "You big baddie, what are you looking at?"
AHEM, AHEM.
Lin Huang coughed dryly twice. Walking past Yann Qing’er with a calm expression, he led her down from the sixth floor of the Scripture Pavilion.
"Little Tiger, you go back first. I’m going to look up some things in the Scripture Pavilion!" Lin Huang said.
"Don’t forget the time you need to be out," Yann Qing’er nodded and reminded him. "The matter of the Martial King’s Tomb has already caused an uproar. The Sect will soon issue tasks to descend the mountain. For tasks like this, many disciples in the palace will definitely fight for them. You have to know, that’s a Martial King’s Tomb! There might be earth-shattering opportunities inside. You absolutely cannot let others get ahead of you."
Lin Huang was taken aback for a moment before offering a grateful smile. He had actually forgotten about this. He nodded. The reason he was so eager to enter the Inner Sect was so he could accept tasks and head to the Martial King’s Tomb to search for the Heart-Burning Lotus. Naturally, he took this matter extremely seriously.
The items left behind by a Martial King from when they were alive held extreme allure for Martial Artists. Even Martial Marquis Powerhouses couldn’t resist the temptation, let alone a bunch of youngsters.
After Yann Qing’er left, Lin Huang plunged headfirst into the third floor of the Scripture Pavilion. The books and scrolls on this floor recorded the continent’s history, customs, Martial Artist legends, tales of the supernatural, Qimen Dunjia, Feng Shui physiognomy, and imperial noble families.
And Lin Huang wanted to find some information within them. Information regarding the Blood Spirit Hall!