Chapter 752: Techniques Manifest Primal Spirits
"Mortals will enslave mortals to death, all the same." Mila tried to shift the conversation again...
"Mortals who enslave mortals are trash, but that doesn't mean immortals who enslave mortals aren't trash." Unfortunately, this clumsy deflection was quickly blocked by the youth.
"What is your name?" Just as the conversation was about to grind to a halt, and someone was already itching to flip the table, the voice from within the pendant suddenly asked.
"Wu Ling. Wu, as in martial arts; Ling, as in dawn."
"You may leave."
"?"
"It's nothing."
Not only were Mila and the other girl surprised, but even Wu Ling himself found it extraordinary.
The unfathomable individual within the pendant had actually let him off so easily?
When had she ever been put in such an awkward position by a mere mortal? Normally, she would have long since dragged him off and whipped him until her anger was sated.
...
"Do you have an opinion?" After Wu Ling vanished from his spot, the voice from within the pendant finally asked Mila.
"I wouldn't dare."
"Just speak your mind. Why be evasive?"
"Why release such a... maniac? He clearly insulted..." Mila quite wanted to add "you" at the end, but she wasn't entirely sure.
From the information she had gathered through various channels, she suspected the Warden was someone extremely close to a certain True Immortal, perhaps even a True Immortal himself.
Logically, upon hearing such a derogatory term as "undying beast," he shouldn't have remained indifferent.
"You think I should be angry?"
"Uh... yes."
"What's there to get agitated about with a pawn? Even if I casually kill him, it's just replacing one puppet with another."
"A pawn? Your meaning is, he's one of those big figures' people?"
The pendant didn't speak again, but for some reason, Mila could vaguely guess that she hadn't hit upon the correct answer.
...
"Please."
"You first."
Compared to Ying Huo and Ramdo, who immediately engaged in a ruthless battle upon meeting, Yun Jie’s confrontation with Grand Marshal Hou Lin was remarkably polite.
To avoid disturbing the main battle between Ying Huo and Ramdo, they moved to the other side of space.
Yun Jie’s figure gradually turned ethereal, as if slowly merging into the boundless dark void of space.
At the same time, Grand Marshal Hou Lin’s physical body remained unchanged, but dazzling golden light emanated from behind him.
One by one, golden phantoms emerged from behind Hou Lin and stepped into reality.
...
"One, two, three, four... sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. Are these the Eighteen Bronze Men?"
Empowered by the pendant, Mila and Sera, who had nothing left to do on the Execution Planet, fearlessly observed the several True Immortal-level battles unfolding in space above.
They knew this was dangerous, but couldn’t resist the urge to glimpse the higher realms.
Power was the eternal pursuit of cultivators.
"Human Immortal versus Celestial Immortal," the voice from within the pendant murmured to itself.
Yun Jie cultivated the traditional Ten Thousand Forms Celestial Immortal Dao, a path renowned for its formidable destructive power and output. Grand Marshal Hou Lin, on the other hand, was a Martial Path Human Immortal, whose martial will was so potent it could turn the ethereal into the tangible.
"Shadow Sword."
Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? No one could truly count how many shadowy swords suddenly appeared in space, assailing Hou Lin from all directions—above, below, left, right, front, and back—from all eighteen of his phantoms.
There was no sound, no heat, almost utterly silent.
At that moment, Mila finally understood why the pendant had said that the mutual slaughter of a million-strong army was merely a test between True Immortals.
She felt that these million shadow swords alone, right before her, would be enough to wipe out the majority of ordinary treants and acolytes on the battlefield.
It seemed as if, in the very next instant, Hou Lin, surrounded by countless shadow swords, would be pierced by a thousand arrows.
"Guardian of the Stars." All eighteen Hou Lins simultaneously unfurled a special domain unique to Martial Path Human Immortals—their Heart-Phase Space.
This was a domain evolved from a Martial Path Dharma Body, bearing some resemblance to a Divine Kingdom.
Within Heart-Phase Space, whatever the martial artist conceived in their mind could be manifested within this domain. Its veracity, however, was determined by the intensity of their martial will.
Hou Lin’s Heart-Phase Space was a map of the Federation, or more accurately, the Federation’s main star chart, encompassing over two thousand Great Thousand Flagships.
Every Great Thousand Flagship in the star chart could enhance his power by a fraction. Theoretically, as the Federation expanded, his power could similarly swell rapidly.
As for how? That was the power of martial will.
What the heart conceived, became reality.
...
The silent shadow swords swiftly approached Hou Lin’s Heart-Phase Space, then rapidly annihilated at its edge, beginning to consume the Heart-Phase Space’s own power.
But this immediately triggered active resistance from the Heart-Phase Space.
A palm-phantom slyly emerged from within. The reason “slyly” describes it is because it truly behaved like a living person, knowing how to dodge and how to hide.
Following one palm-phantom was a whole host of others.
They stepped out of the Heart-Phase Space and drifted through the ocean of shadow swords, occasionally grabbing a handful and letting them dissipate in their palms, much like a group of hands randomly scooping fish from a vast school.
"Techniques Manifest Primal Spirits?" Yun Jie watched the group of hands spinning, leaping, and occasionally "stealing a bite" within the ocean of shadow swords, a look of appreciation dawning on his face.
This was also one of the most intriguing aspects of Martial Path Human Immortals: Techniques Manifest Primal Spirits.
Every strike unleashed by a Human Immortal could potentially give birth to its own sentience.
It was even possible for some bizarre consciousnesses to emerge that would simply cower when facing an enemy, transforming into cowardly sword qi that would turn and flee at the sight of a foe.
Of course, this rarely happened, as the vast majority of Human Immortals had achieved an abnormal degree of control over themselves.
The consciousnesses born from their techniques would only be pure killing machines, much like the Zerg, at most focusing on methods and efficiency of killing, rather than foolishly charging forward to their deaths.
Hou Lin’s "Spirit-Animated Palms" were the same. They understood how to self-adjust their actions, each maximizing damage to the enemy before their power was exhausted and they vanished like smoke.
...
Due to the current cultivation limitations of Human Immortals, most of the primal spirits born from their techniques actually possessed lifespans of only a few hours, or even a few minutes.
Under normal circumstances, they had no leisure to contemplate other matters; their sole purpose was to slay enemies.
According to the Federation’s estimates, perhaps only Human Immortals of the ninth tier would truly be able to create primal spirit dependents with lifespans exceeding a hundred years in a single move.
They might truly be able to establish their own civilizations.
What seventh-tier Human Immortals could conjure now were merely ephemeral creatures, born at dawn and perishing at dusk.
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