hotmtlnovel 14. The Hope of Liberation
14. The Hope of Liberation
The rule is that the Ling family must always have at least one Soul Saint or higher Soul Master guarding the entrance membrane to this secret realm.
This is also to protect the membrane at the entrance to the secret area.
Although this membrane can effectively prevent Soul Masters who lack talent or strength from entering the small plane, it does not mean that the membrane has extremely strong defensive capabilities.
On the contrary, the membrane's defensive capabilities are extremely poor. Attacks from Soul King level or high-level thousand-year-old Soul Beast level could penetrate it and sever the connection between Douluo Continent and the smaller plane.
This is why someone needs to guard the membrane. More importantly, the person guarding it also needs to establish a connection with the altar in the smaller plane.
Once the connection is established, it means that the guardian can only move within a radius of one hundred miles centered on the membrane. If they leave the one hundred-mile radius of the membrane, their life force will rapidly drain away towards the altar until the guardian dies!
Correspondingly, after establishing a connection with the altar, the guardian can also use the energy contained within the altar and the minor plane to cultivate, using its higher-level energy to accelerate their cultivation speed and more easily break through bottlenecks.
A guardian of this place must stand guard for decades or even centuries, which means enduring a monotonous life for decades or even centuries!
More than 160 years ago, the previous ancestor of the Ling family, who was stationed in the secret place, sensed that his time was coming to an end. After informing the Ling family of this news in a special way, he began to go into seclusion.
After receiving the message from their ancestor, the Ling family leadership quickly convened a meeting. After a series of negotiations and disputes, they decided to send Ling Yongsheng, whose cultivation had broken through to level seventy-two, to the secret realm to take over as its guardian.
However, this decision was quickly overturned by Ling Yongming, who had already decided to groom him as the next chief elder, just half a day later.
Back then, Ling Yongming awakened the Martial Soul of the One-Horned Dark Ice Dragon, a mutated top-tier beast Martial Soul that combines dark and ice attributes, and its innate soul power was as high as level nine and a half.
When the veto was proposed, Ling Yongming was thirty years old, but his cultivation had already reached the level of a seventy-sixth-level Soul Saint, and his future was almost certainly locked into the title of Douluo.
However, to spare his younger brother from suffering, he resolutely applied to the family elders to take his place and guard this desolate place. His reasoning was sound: although his talent surpassed his brother's, he did not wield the family's traditional Frost Soul Chain Dragon Spear, which might not be a good thing for the future of the Ling family.
Therefore, sending him to guard the secret realm was a better choice than sending Ling Yongsheng. Since someone was willing to take on the responsibility, the Ling family elders did not object. In the eyes of the older generation of Ling family members, the importance of the position of serving the gods was no less than that of the next generation's chief elder. Sending Ling Yongming, who was the most talented member of the family at the time, to guard the secret realm was not a bad idea.
Thus, the resolution was passed. Ling Yongming replaced Ling Yongsheng and went to the secret realm to take over the position of guardian. It was also that night that Ling Yongsheng's father told him that his elder brother had gone to the secret realm to cultivate in his place.
At first, Ling Yongsheng was somewhat relieved that his elder brother was willing to endure the tedious hardship in the secret realm in his place. However, as he grew older and realized the sacrifices his brother had made, Ling Yongsheng's heart was gradually filled with guilt, which even became his inner demon. It was precisely because of this guilt that Ling Yongsheng dared not come to the secret realm to see his elder brother.
It wasn't until thirty years ago, when his son Ling An broke through to the Title Douluo level, that Ling Yongsheng finally hardened his heart and decided to overcome his inner demons and go to the secret place to see his elder brother, whom he hadn't seen for over a hundred years.
Back then, Ling Yongsheng, who had rarely shed tears in his life, burst into tears when he saw his older brother with a full head of white hair again after a hundred years. He heard his brother's familiar yet unfamiliar greeting.
From that moment on, the bottleneck of level 97 that had plagued Ling Yongsheng for decades began to loosen. Later, Ling Yongsheng even shattered his inner demons in one fell swoop and stepped into the realm of level 97. However, at that time, he didn't care so much about his cultivation level. Whether it was level 96 or 97, his current cultivation was enough to make those traitors of the Douling Empire dare not cross the threshold again. At that time, he thought more about spending more time with his elder brother.
This is also why he left the Ling family for twenty years. During those twenty years, he stayed in this secluded place with his elder brother, making up for his past regrets. Unexpectedly, the cultivation process that occurred during these twenty years of companionship surpassed the cultivation of the previous decades, allowing Ling Yongsheng to advance further and reach the level of ninety-eight, just one step away from the human limit of level ninety-nine.
This is also why he chose to leave the secret realm and return to his family. Unexpectedly, this time, he saw a real hope for his elder brother's liberation! Although the Ice God's original request did not specify how to liberate the guardian.
However, the descendants of the Ling family came up with a possibility: if a Soul Master could emerge from the younger generation to become the new Ice God and free the Guardian, would it still be a difficult task?
This was a faint hope for all the guardians. Unfortunately, even the ancestor who was born with full soul power only underwent a Black-level divine test, just like the original ancestor, and did not succeed in inheriting the position of the Ice God.
But things are different now. Ling Bingtian has awakened a god-level martial soul! A god-level martial soul that is only recorded in ancient books and is rarely seen in history! This means that Ling Bingtian is the soul master most likely to become a god, and also the most likely person to free Ling Yongming.
Thinking of this, how could Ling Yongsheng not be excited? So, the moment he saw Ling Yongming, Ling Yongsheng couldn't help but introduce his proudest descendants to him.
With Ling Yongming's current cultivation level of 95 Super Douluo, as long as Ling Bingtian cultivates fast enough, it's not impossible for him to return to his family before his time is up and take one last look at his familiar homeland!
An ordinary Title Douluo can live for hundreds of years. It is only because of the various hidden injuries left from fighting others when their cultivation was shallow, as well as the mistakes that may occur during cultivation, that their lifespan is greatly reduced.
Super Douluo like Ling Yongming, who has been stationed here for over a hundred years and has been absorbing energy from the altar to cultivate, naturally has a lifespan far longer than that of Title Douluos in the outside world.
His aged appearance is simply because he's too lazy to take care of his body. If he wanted to, he could easily regain his youthful appearance in a short period of time.
Looking at his elder brother's aged appearance, even the younger brother, who had been by his side for a long time and whose guilt had been somewhat alleviated, couldn't help but secretly vow that he would raise his grandson to be successful in his lifetime so that his elder brother could be freed from this burden.