NOVEL NEXT Chapter 68: Endless Slaughter
"Kill!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
An endless sea of flowers!
On the Heavenly Ascension Steps, Qi Yuan held his sword, integrating all of Zanghua's insights into himself.
In an instant, thousands of terrifying blood-red armored men, each ten meters tall, appeared on the entire arena.
Thousands of towering Qi Yuan figures, all holding swords, focused their gazes on a single enemy on the arena.
It was a 0.5-meter-high giant beetle, a mutant species among beetles, its size tens of times larger than ordinary beetles.
At this moment, it looked at the towering shadows all around, question marks floating above its head.
Qi Yuan pointed his sword at the giant beetle: "As the saying goes, shoot the bird that sticks out. Who told you not to keep a low profile, growing into such a big dumb thing? You must be the blue giant of the beetle clan!"
If the 0.5-meter-tall giant beetle could speak, it would definitely say, "You're ten meters tall, calling me a big dumb thing at 0.5 meters?"
Kill.
With the boost from the endless sea of flowers, the swords of the thousands of Qi Yuan figures converged on a single point, stabbing at the giant beetle.
The giant beetle died.
According to forensic examination, its body was full of holes, not a piece of intact flesh could be found.
After killing, Qi Yuan took a deep breath.
"My understanding of Zanghua has deepened once again."
Today, he had fought over a hundred battles, constantly comprehending Zanghua's combat techniques and cultivation experiences.
"Now, I can shamelessly say, no one understands Zanghua better than I do."
"Continue, next match!"
Dragging his massive body, Qi Yuan prepared to step into the next battle.
Now, he had already reached level 97, his strength reaching a staggering degree.
"Longpan is only level 99, the peak of the Divine Domain.
Then is level 100 a new realm?
But... is the Divine Domain really only from level 90 to 100?
That's too short, isn't it?
Moreover, when I merge with Xiao Jia, I can display the power of level 102, but I don't feel... that kind of major breakthrough in the realm."
While continuously fighting on the Ascension Platform, as his level increased, Qi Yuan discovered many issues.
The Heavenly Domain ranges from level 70 to 89.
The Divine Domain, is it really only from level 90 to 99?
When stepping from level 89 to 90, Qi Yuan clearly felt a qualitative change in his strength.
However, when wearing Xiao Jia, forcibly breaking through to level 100, that surge in strength didn't feel very intense.
"Could it be that Tong, Longpan, and Yu are not truly the peaks of the Divine Domain?" Qi Yuan suddenly had a terrifying suspicion.
But if they are not the peak of the Divine Domain, why do they think they are?
Is it possible that a supreme being altered their cognition?
Or... is someone restricting their breakthroughs?
This feels like a person at the fifth level of Qi Refinement being forcibly altered to believe that the fifth level is the peak, and then starting to build a foundation someday.
If so, what awaits him might be death.
Thinking this way, Qi Yuan felt that this game world might have a bigger boss.
He couldn't help but look towards the Ascension Platform and the densely packed seats above it.
"Who used to watch the battles here?"
"The enemies I'm encountering now are already at level 80. How strong were the strongest fighters on the Ascension Platform?"
Qi Yuan finally put these thoughts aside.
The battle continued, and he resumed killing to gain experience.
...
In the Five Elements Prohibition.
Longpan stood up, gazing at the sky, looking at an ancient Qichun tree, and couldn't help but exclaim, "I didn't expect that in the blink of an eye, so many years have passed, and it has grown so large."
Yu also looked up at Longpan: "The seed of the ancient Qichun tree, you obtained it from the forbidden land of the Five Elements and offered it to the gods.
Perhaps this seed has absorbed all of the Princess of the Wedding Gown's obsessions to grow this large?"
Ten thousand years ago, the gods were defeated, and the extraterrestrial demons ravaged the human world.
Their comrades died or were injured, and only they retreated into the forbidden land, relying on it to temporarily evade the extraterrestrial demons.
Yu excelled at divination and predicted that the day of the lunar eclipse would be the moment when the extraterrestrial demons were at their weakest.
This led to the demon-slaying event three hundred years later.
"It's a pity that the Four Great Forbidden Lands and the Two Great Deadlands are ancient and mysterious. Even after staying in the forbidden land of the Five Elements for so long, and even though the Five Patriarchs are considered the controllers of the forbidden land, we couldn't discover its true secrets," Longpan lamented.
"The leader of the Clothing Division should have gone to the mortal realm?" Yu asked.
The mortal realm refers to places other than the Four Great Forbidden Lands and the Two Great Deadlands.
"Our insights and experiences must be honed either through battles or by venturing into the mortal world," Longpan said. "Although Zanghua has a foul mouth, her intentions are well-meaning."
They knew that Zanghua's battle with the leader of the Clothing Division was to help the leader digest insights and experiences.
For Zanghua, it was a huge expenditure.
Because her power was accumulating, waiting to unleash the strongest blow at the demon-slaying event.
If her strength was consumed, it would be reduced a little, and it was hard to replenish.
They were the same. They would avoid fighting if they could.
Of course, the battle between Longpan and Tong was inevitable.
Otherwise, these old fellows would have crawled out of their coffins to be sparring partners for the leader of the Clothing Division.
"Do our best and leave the rest to fate. In three hundred years, we shall all rise together to fight the demons!"
...
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Qi Yuan woke from a dream, his back drenched in cold sweat, soaking his clothes, his forehead also covered in sweat.
He looked at the wooden cat puppet on the bedside, its eyes open, sitting upright, the red and black paint seemingly worn from age.
Qi Yuan walked out of the thatched hut, standing in the courtyard.
The cold moonlight fell on him, and he felt a chill.
"Killing too many people does indeed lead to nightmares."
"I am still too full of positive energy, just some remnants."
With a wave of his hand, a water mirror appeared before him.
He looked at himself in the mirror.
Handsome and extraordinary, with a hint of eeriness in his eyes, and faintly visible killing intent all over his body.
"The killing intent is still too strong."
"Who would believe that playing games would train someone to have such killing intent?"
After all, in his previous life, some people killed over a billion wild monsters in games without exuding such killing intent.
Qi Yuan had already decided that unless he could refine or hide his killing intent, he would never go out.
Even if he went out, he couldn't reveal his identity.
Thinking this way, Qi Yuan didn't go back to sleep but took out the cultivation techniques he had moved from the Black Mountain Sect, searching for a method to hide his killing intent.
The Black Mountain Sect, being notorious for its evil deeds, had cultivators who needed to hide their killing intent, so such methods must exist.
After searching for a while, Qi Yuan found three methods to hide his killing intent.
"Xuanqing Kongling Dafa," "Youming Guiyu Huasha Jue," and "Lianzi Jue."
Qi Yuan carefully studied them. Each had its own merits.
However, the first and second methods were higher in grade, suitable for those at the Foundation Establishment stage or higher.
Currently, Qi Yuan couldn't practice them. Moreover, surprisingly, the second method, "Youming Guiyu Huasha Jue," was not a primary cultivation technique for cultivators but a functional method. Practicing it could lead to becoming a resource for certain entities.
"The problems in this world are too great," Qi Yuan worried. "Even some methods can't be practiced carelessly."
He looked at the last method, "Lianzi Jue."
This method could be practiced by Qi Refining stage cultivators.
It couldn't dissolve the killing intent but could hide it.
Though inferior to the first two, it was still quite good.
"This is the Lianzi Jue. If you make 145 modifications to it, it may yield unexpected results."
Qi Yuan pondered and followed the instructions seen by his eyes, modifying the Lianzi Jue.
After the modifications, he showed a look of amazement.
"My eyes really understand me, and what they show suits me so well!"
The newly modified Lianzi Jue was unrecognizable.
It not only hid his killing intent but also allowed him to subtly project it onto others.
This made Qi Yuan feel that if anyone accused him of having heavy killing intent and wanted to exorcise demons, he could justifiably counterattack.
...
"Die!"
On the Ascension Platform, Qi Yuan, merged with Xiao Jia, was facing the siege of ten Divine Domain experts.
Now, he had ascended 100,000 steps.
After 100,000 steps, the strength of the experts Qi Yuan encountered changed drastically.
The weakest were at the Divine Domain level.
Now, facing the siege of ten level 91 Divine Domain experts, Qi Yuan was unafraid.
His entire body seemed to solidify into blood energy, and the blood-red armor became even more terrifying.
"I've finally reached level 99 too."
Qi Yuan's voice also became somewhat bewitching.
He seemed to have come from hell.
With one sword strike, the remnant images of the ten Divine Realm powerhouses couldn't resist at all and were slaughtered by Qi Yuan's single sword.
Wearing Xiao Jia, Qi Yuan could exert power at level 104.
This level of strength was not something these enemies who had just entered the Divine Realm could deal with.
Not to mention, Qi Yuan also had all the battle experiences and insights of those 84 Divine Realm powerhouses.
Now, he could say without hesitation that he understood those people better than they understood themselves.
Battle experience and techniques had all been integrated into his own being.
"In the battles below, I should also integrate all the battle experiences and techniques, making them my own."
"Moreover, can't I also learn the battle experiences and techniques of the enemies?"
"There are still over twenty thousand battles left!"
"How many enemies?"
"At least twenty thousand Divine Realm, right? Maybe even... two hundred thousand Divine Realm?"
"I hope it won't overload the Concealment Character Technique?"
Qi Yuan entered the game again to slaughter.
Time flew by quickly.
One day in the game was one year on the Ascension Platform, and later, one day in the game could be ten or even a hundred years on the Ascension Platform.
The latter information wasn't told to Qi Yuan by that golden-armored divine general.
Perhaps because the golden-armored divine general didn't expect Qi Yuan to be able to climb so high on the steps.
Perhaps he thought that Qi Yuan would be like the previous challengers, dying in a certain battle, his blood dyeing the arena red, becoming part of the guardians.
Qi Yuan slaughtered tirelessly in the game.
He didn't know how many living beings he had killed.
Now before him were fifty level 93 Divine Realm powerhouses.
If it were before, Qi Yuan would have quickly run away upon encountering them.
But now, he wasn't afraid at all.
Having experienced tens of thousands of battles, he had fully accepted the battle experiences of 84 Divine Realm powerhouses and absorbed the battle experiences of the checkpoint guardians. He had reached a terrifying level.
He was like a ghost dancing on swords and blades, holding a blood-red treasure sword, weaving through dozens of Divine Realm powerhouses.
Every sword strike of his seemed heaven-sent.
Every attack, even his dodges and the release of martial dao divine abilities, was beautiful to the extreme. Even the most critical person couldn't find any flaws in them.
Qi Yuan's enormous body, with armor all over, became even more bewitching, the blood-red spikes looking horrifyingly creepy.
Now, he was more demonic than the otherworldly demons.
When he slaughtered all the enemies with his sword, a string of experience was gained.
Qi Yuan squinted his eyes: "Still at level 99? Unable to reach level 100?"
Qi Yuan couldn't remember how many Divine Realm beings he had killed.
As a result, his experience bar was stuck at level 99, unable to increase further.
It was as if an invisible hand had confined him to level 99.
"At least the experience is still there." The only thing that made Qi Yuan feel better was that the experience was still accumulating.
There was just a restriction preventing him from leveling up.
Once he broke through that restriction, he could level up.
Qi Yuan wondered, what level would he reach? At least level 110, right?
And there were still ten thousand steps left, with even more Divine Realm beings inside.
"This place is truly my monster farming paradise!" Qi Yuan thought for a moment and exited the Ascension Ladder.
He had killed for long enough, it was time to log off.
Although Qi Yuan had experienced countless battles here, in reality, only half a month had passed.
In this half month, the water and fire qi in Qi Yuan's body had been fully converted.
When the water qi was being converted, the entire Divine Light Sect experienced a rainfall.
However, possibly due to Qi Yuan's own killing intent, the color of that rain was red, like blood.
Any cultivator who was drenched by that rain would have nightmares once they fell asleep.
In their dreams, they saw a huge blood-colored figure, seemingly slaughtering in all directions.
That huge figure emitted a terrifying aura, extremely horrifying.
This caused many ordinary disciples of the Divine Light Sect to have sleepless nights, with some crying and screaming, claiming to have seen a devil in their dreams.
These words made those Foundation Establishment and Core Formation cultivators laugh.
What was so scary about a dream?
Moreover, hearing those disciples describe that blood-red horrifying figure as a demonic god made them laugh even more.
Qi Refining cultivators and ordinary mortals really had limited experience, calling any cat or dog a demonic god.
Some Foundation Establishment and Core Formation cultivators who had already achieved abstinence from food became interested in that dream and deliberately went to sleep. When they saw that terrifying blood-red figure, their reactions were no better than those of the Qi Refining disciples and ordinary mortals.
Moreover, because they had seen more, they understood better the horror of that blood-red figure, and many of them were so scared that they nearly lost control of their minds.
For several consecutive days, those Qi Refining disciples in the entire Divine Light Sect didn't dare to sleep at night, cultivating with panda eyes, until everything returned to normal five days later.
The various strange occurrences that had happened recently in the Divine Light Sect had already spread throughout the Great Shang Country, attracting the attention of many.
At this moment, Qi Yuan opened the chat interface, embraced Xiao Jia's slender waist, changed to a comfortable position, and started chatting idly with Jin Li again.
"Sigh, this Tian Jue has too many enemies. Killing every day, I'm tired of killing," Qi Yuan couldn't help but vent some negative energy to Jin Li.
In the past, he rarely expressed negative energy.
Now, after every major battle, he would chat with Jin Li for a while to ease the emotions in his heart.
Of course, even if he hadn't experienced a major battle, he had already gotten used to chatting idly with Jin Li.
And Jin Li was particularly understanding, sometimes listening, sometimes talking.
"I feel that in another half month, I'll be able to clear Tian Jue," Qi Yuan sent the message over.