by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“What kind of formation could be this terrifying? It is able to transform runes into such a life-like Magical Beast!” Long Chen was shocked.
This was something he had never even heard of in the Eastern Wasteland. It had already surpassed the scope of his understanding.
Just as the Ancient Devil Ape’s runes flew back into its carving, a stone door slowly opened on the wall.
The old tribe leader had told him that for the ordinary trials, there was only one level that needed to be cleared to pass the entire trial. But for the high level trials, there were several levels. Different levels of difficulty represented different rewards.
As soon as he walked through the stone door, it slammed shut behind him. Another circular stage appeared in front of him. Looking from a distance, it looked just like a wrestling ring.
Long Chen had only just entered, and he hadn’t even had time to look around when the sound of roaring filled his ears. Carvings lit up in the mural on the opposing wall, and dozens of fierce beasts charged at Long Chen.
“Blazing Wild Lion, Storm Gold Wolf, Dark Underworld Devil Leopard…”
Long Chen counted thirty-two seventh rank Magical Beasts charging at him. His saber hastily slashed at the lead Storm Gold Wolf.
But Long Chen was startled to see a golden light suddenly shine on the Storm Gold Wolf’s body, and it instantly appeared dozens of meters away, dodging his saber.
Just as he was startled, he felt wind behind him. A Magical Beast had flanked him. It was incredibly quick, and he had no time to defend properly.
Suddenly, lightning lit up his body. It was like he had teleported up into the air, dodging that Magical Beast’s fierce mouth.
“It’s a good thing I have the Lightning Body Blink.” Long Chen took a deep breath. Although he knew these Magical Beasts were made of runes, their attack power wasn’t much weaker than true seventh rank Magical Beasts.
With this many appearing all at once, Long Chen really did have difficulty believing the old tribe leader’s words. If he couldn’t defeat them, it seemed he really would die here.
Looking around, Long Chen didn’t see any signs of reward. So he knew that this trial wouldn’t stop at this wave.
Thinking of that, Long Chen decided to directly give up on killing these Magical Beasts. He chose to stay in the air and focus on dodging their attacks.
Who knew how many waves would come from this trial? Considering the difference between the first and second wave, it was obvious each wave was more terrifying than the last.
Long Chen gave up on attacking them. He was training his reflexes and the Lightning Body Blink. He wanted to reach the point where he could instinctively control the lightning whirlpools.
Thunderforce covered Long Chen’s body as he descended back into the arena. He was surrounded by Magical Beasts and in an incredibly dangerous situation. If his reactions were too slow or that he made a mistake controlling the Lightning Body Blink, he would immediately be struck by a fierce attack.
Those Magical Beasts’ claws and teeth were all powerful and capable of tearing through his body. Each time he was struck, Long Chen would clench his teeth in pain.
“I’ll just treat it as a punishment for failure.” Long Chen ground his teeth, bearing the pain. He intentionally didn’t heal his injuries to force himself to focus more on dodging.
Through constant observation and dodging, Long Chen finally found these Magical Beasts’ weak point. That weak point was that they only had a set number of attack patterns.
Not only were those attacks simple, but their bodies would always contract slightly before they attacked. That was an extremely obvious sign, and it was unknown whether the trial had been intentionally set up like this to give the trial takers an opportunity.
But Long Chen couldn’t think about that right now. He was focused entirely on dodging. His Spiritual Strength was fully activated. He wanted to train his dodging reflex.
Time passed. Long Chen was struck less and less frequently. In the end, he stayed permanently on the ground and began to weave back and forth through the slight gaps between the Magical Beasts. That increased the danger even more. It was like dancing on the tip of a blade.
Now that he was dodging completely on the ground, the level of danger had increased by tens of times. His body was immediately covered in blood, but he still gritted his teeth and continued. He didn’t heal himself. A person had to be vicious to themselves to get stronger.
It was unknown how many times he had been struck. Long Chen himself didn’t remember. In any case, his body was a mass of blood and gore. But the facts proved that this kind of bloody training was extremely effective.
After an hour of not being struck by them, Long Chen finally smiled and activated the primal chaos space. Life energy healed all of his injuries.
“Thank you all. I feel bad doing this after how much work you’ve done for me, but I’ll be sending you on your way.” Long Chen suddenly took out a sword. Sword-light blossomed as he finally went on the offensive.
Chapter 815 The Eighth Level
Long Chen flashed through the air. Dodging a claw, his sword slashed through a Magical Beast’s neck, causing its head to fall.
After that slash, Long Chen had found that while these Magical Beasts’ auras were on the same level as true seventh rank Magical Beasts, their attacks were a bit inferior, and their defense was much, much weaker. A true seventh rank Magical Beast definitely couldn’t be killed so easily.
But that also made sense. If they were all true Magical Beasts, this wouldn’t be a trial for disciples, but a slaughter.
That beheaded Magical Beast instantly transformed into a ray of light that returned to the carvings on the wall. The number of Magical Beasts attacking Long Chen dropped by one.
As Long Chen retreated from those attacks, his sword flashed. Seeing Magical Beasts revealing an opening after their attack, he appeared by their side. With two more strikes of his sword, two more Magical Beasts were killed and flew back into the wall.
“No wonder Huang Junmo likes using such a thin sword. With this kind of movement art, the more agile the weapon, the more smoothly and easily it can be used.” Long Chen came to a sudden comprehension. This kind of movement art required an agile martial weapon. If he used a large saber, it would be too irritating and difficult.
Suddenly, Long Chen pushed the Lightning Body Blink to the peak, and the battlefield was filled with his afterimages. Lightning flashed as Magical Beasts were killed one by one. In just a few breaths, all of them were killed. The only one left in the arena was an excited Long Chen.
“The Lightning Body Blink is amazing! Hehe, Huang Junmo, just wait. I’ll make you cough up everything you took!”
Suddenly, a stone door opened once more. Long Chen took a deep breath. Since he had come here, he would have to keep going to the end.
Entering the gate, he saw another huge arena, one even bigger than the last. The Magical Beast murals on the wall lit up, and they charged at Long Chen once more.
These Magical Beasts were no taller than three meters. Their size was compressed, or just two seventh rank Magical Beasts would be enough to fill the entire space. There would have been no space to fight.
But the fortunate thing was that their power was also restricted. Otherwise, if they were true seventh rank Magical Beast on the level of the Hidden Ground Gold Spider King, then just one would be troublesome enough. Two would take Long Chen’s life.
This place was now filled with sixty-four seventh rank Magical Beasts. If they were true Magical Beasts, Long Chen wouldn’t even have the ability to resist.
Roars rang out. There were tigers, leopards, wolves, and lions. All kinds of Magical Beasts charged over with a cold light in their eyes. No one would believe that they were just runic transformations of beasts!
Icy sword-light slashed through the air like lightning. An ear-piercing rumbling filled the space.
One of the charging Magical Beasts was directly
killed with a swing of Long Chen’s sword. His control over the Lightning Body Blink had increased so much that he could dodge and retreat with ease. He came and went like lightning. Even with this many Magical Beasts attacking him, he didn’t feel the slightest bit of pressure.
Long Chen rejoiced. Before this, he would have only been able to fight them by erupting with his full strength. Ignoring how dangerous that would be, just the exhaustion would be immense. It definitely wouldn’t be this easy.
After that Magical Beast was killed, Long Chen thought it would transform into runes and return to the wall. But although it transformed into runes, it didn’t fly toward the wall. Instead, those runes flew toward Long Chen!
Long Chen jumped and hastily defended. But those runes were unaffected. They went straight through his slash and entered his body.
He was startled. Before he could react, those runes transformed into incomparably pure energy. That energy’s purity was almost frightening. Long Chen estimated that this energy was equivalent to a month’s bitter cultivation for him.
“This is the reward?” Long Chen was ecstatic. If that was the case, then the previous levels had just been an opening test. Now was the true start of the trial and the true start of the rewards. With this pure energy, his cultivation base would rapidly rise!
He was just about to absorb that pure energy when his palm suddenly shook. The Enlightenment Palace Star automatically began to circulate. Without waiting for Long Chen’s consent, it directly absorbed the energy.
“The Enlightenment Palace Star can also absorb this energy?!” Long Chen’s delight erupted to a new level. This was the first time he found another energy that could nourish the Enlightenment Palace Star! Previously, his only option had been to rely on letting it slowly absorb medicinal energy.
At the same time as he was delighted, Long Chen suddenly realized that perhaps there were other methods to train in the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art. It was just that he didn’t know them. Today, he saw a new way of cultivating for himself!
While he was incomparably excited, his sword continued to dance through the air. He was like a bolt of lightning piercing through the Magical Beasts. Wherever his sword pointed, Magical Beasts died one by one.
Suddenly, the Enlightenment Palace Star shook. A powerful and majestic energy surged throughout Long Chen’s body.
Long Chen raised his head and laughed. His laughter was like thunder, shaking the entire cavern. A fierce energy surged out of him. Even the Magical Beasts around him were forced back!
“There’s no need to suppress yourself. The feeling of advancing really is amazing!”
The Enlightenment Palace Star had entered the fourth star transformation, and the amount of energy it was able to offer Long Chen had also increased. Although its advancements were slow, each advancement brought Long Chen immense benefits.
He suddenly switched his sword for a saber. Just like that, he directly underwent a slaughter of the Magical Beasts. His saber possessed such immense power that any Magical Beasts that were struck by it would be blown into runes, even if he didn’t strike a weak point.
“As expected, explosive power is my style.”
Although the Lightning Body Blink was incomparably exquisite, that kind of skillful fighting style wasn’t something Long Chen liked. He preferred a direct competition of power.
The final Magical Beast was killed and all their runes entered Long Chen’s body. All that energy was absorbed by the Enlightenment Palace Star, but it still didn’t reach the fifth star transformation.
Long Chen was panting slightly. Although these runic Magical Beasts couldn’t compare to true Magical Beasts, killing them had still exhausted a great deal of his energy. That was the price of wasting energy to satisfy himself.
If he had used the Lightning Body Blink and technique, it would have been a bit slower, but it would have saved a great deal of energy.
The wall slowly opened but Long Chen didn’t immediately enter. Looking from the outside, he saw that it was another immense arena. The difference was that there were even more Magical Beast carvings inside.
If it was like this, then Long Chen was relieved. But suddenly, the door began to shut. Long Chen jumped and hastily rushed in. This trial actually didn’t give him any time to rest.
He had only just entered when the murals lit up. Roaring filled his ears as he was surrounded by over a hundred Magical Beasts. There were a total of one hundred and twenty-eight of them, which was twice the amount of the third level.
The fortunate thing was that their power was about the same. It was just their numbers that were increasing. Long Chen could still handle that. But there were truly too many Magical Beasts now, and Long Chen didn’t have much space to move anymore. He began to suffer injuries again.
Long Chen furiously released his full strength. His divine ring appeared and four stars revolved in his eyes. His saber swept through these Magical Beasts, and they rapidly began to fall in number, turning into runes that entered Long Chen’s body. As a result, the Enlightenment Palace Star didn’t stand on courtesy and directly absorbed them all.
The Enlightenment Palace Star had only just entered the fourth star transformation on the last level. But due to the immense energy entering Long Chen, it directly reached the fifth level. This speed was thousands of times greater than when he relied on medicinal pills.
Once only one Magical Beast was left, Long Chen suddenly stopped and just danced around, continuously dodging it and recovering his energy.
“As expected, there really is a trick. Otherwise, just who could continue like this for so long?” Seeing that the stone door didn’t open, Long Chen was put at ease. He had found the trick behind the trial.
According to the old tribe leader, any trial, even trials with the same difficulty, had different rewards here, and there were also different contents. So there were little tricks that could be used for each trial, and figuring them out could be considered a trial of its own. An expert naturally needed sharp observation and analytical skills.
For the trial to be so difficult but not give people time to breathe was completely unreasonable. So Long Chen had become suspicious, and as a result, with a simple test, he found his theory to be correct.
Long Chen had a ‘bitter battle’ against the final Magical Beast for four hours before killing it. At this time, Long Chen had recovered over ninety percent of his energy.
Once the final Magical Beast was killed, the stone door opened. Long Chen entered the next level.
And as expected, it was the same as before. It was just a bigger arena with more Magical Beasts. This time, there were two hundred and fifty-six!
Since he had found the trick behind this trial, Long Chen wasn’t worried. The only thing out of his expectations was that there were now flying Magical Beasts. He had to first go all-out killing some of them to open up some space before using the Lightning Body Blink.
The fifth level!
The sixth level!
The seventh level!
By the time Long Chen reached the seventh level, there were over a thousand Magical Beasts, and they filled up almost the entire arena. Even going all-out, Long Chen was covered in blood. There were just too many of them. If it weren’t for the life energy in the primal chaos space, Long Chen would have died, either from being killed or from sheer exhaustion.
Furthermore, by the seventh level, the Magical Beasts hadn’t just used ordinary attacks. They had also used various divine abilities. In brief, Long Chen found it incredibly bitter and difficult. He had even used Split the Heavens and the Double Dragon Destruction, and only then had he barely passed. When he was down to the final Magical Beast, Long Chen directly had Lei Long go handle it while he focused on recovering his exhausted spiritual yuan. This battle was truly too exhausting.
It took Long Chen a total of twenty hours to completely recover. He opened his eyes and stood up, a faint smile on his face. At this point, the Enlightenment Palace Star had reached the seve
nth star transformation!
After killing the last Magical Beast, Long Chen entered the eighth level. As a result, he only just entered when his hair stood on end. A sensation of death caused him to turn cold from head to toe!
Chapter 816 Eight-Arm Horned Devil
There was nothing on the walls now. Instead, within the huge arena, there was only a single large figure.
It was humanoid and three meters tall. It had eight arms, and there was a long horn on its head. Fangs grew out of its mouth, and its muscles bulged. A terrifying aura came from it.
That aura was different from all other experts Long Chen had encountered. It was brutal and sinister to the extreme. Even Corrupt experts didn’t give off this feeling. Despite his experience in countless battles, Long Chen still felt a chill from that evil aura.
That large figure was standing there motionlessly. Its eyes were closed, and it was like a statue. Long Chen’s heart clenched. Was this monster supposed to be his opponent for this level?
Buzz.
Just as Long Chen was unsure of what to do, an illusory page appeared in front of him. He quickly read it.
“The Eight-Arm Horned Devil, one of the devil races of antiquity. It possesses a pure bloodline that gives it immense power. It has already been refined into a puppet which possesses eighty percent of the original body’s power.
“But it still possesses its bloodline, and its combat power can be compared to a human peak rank three Celestial. When rank three heavenly geniuses fight it, their probability of winning is nine in a thousand.”
Reading those characters, Long Chen jumped in fright. Rank three Celestials had a nine in one thousand chance of winning against it? In other words, less than one percent?
“This is a life and death level. Once it’s started, there is no retreat. Victory is life, defeat is death. If your power is limited and you feel you cannot defeat it, walk one hundred steps to your left and activate the runes. You will receive a peak grade Enchanted item.”