Chapter 1244: Chapter 1242: Pressing the Holy Monarch
"This is East Victory Village?"
Shi Xiaole’s first reaction was not surprise, but horror.
He was horrified by his own luck; it took seven beads to open East Victory Village, yet he had collected five on his own. In the vastness of the world, why did he choose the North Sea and just happen to find East Victory Village?
Everything was too coincidental, as if some force was guiding him here.
It was also at this time that Shi Xiaole suddenly realized that the Demon Bone inside his body had been sealed by a force, and that was why the bloodline of the Outer Heaven did not leak out.
Otherwise, with the pattern of East Victory Village, would they really not notice the Outer Heaven bloodline and restrict it?
"It was the palm and the five beads from before!"
Shi Xiaole suddenly remembered that Shi Xuanzhong had swept him away from the Sky Origin battlefield with a palm strike. He hadn’t paid attention at the time, but now recalling it, it was that blast of palm energy that had triggered the power within the five beads and sealed the power of the Demon Bone.
Heaven, wasn’t that an illusion?
"Chosen one, remember the blood feud of invasion for generations! As a descendant of East Victory, one must never forget the ancestral shame and use the blood feud to spur oneself on daily. The world of East Victory needs your generation’s protection, please give it your all!"
As the voice faded, rows of tiny characters appeared in the void, easily numbering in the tens of thousands.
"This is a top-level sword technique; cultivate it to minor completion with your fastest speed. This is also the second part of the test," the voice said.
The second part?
Shi Xiaole realized that the previous blood battle must have been the first part.
Having come this far, he had no way back, and his intuition told him that he must continue if he wanted to find the Three Elders of Dust. On the other hand, Shi Xiaole was also very curious about the opportunities in East Victory Village.
Right now, he urgently needed to improve himself!
With Shi Xiaole’s spiritual power, the mere tens of thousands of characters could be read and memorized in an instant. Brandishing his long sword, he began to practice.
If it were Fist Technique, Palm Skill, or other martial arts, even with Shi Xiaole’s high comprehension, it wouldn’t be so easy, but swordsmanship was different.
With a Heart Sword and Divine Sword Control that surpassed ordinary people, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Shi Xiaole’s understanding of swordsmanship was unprecedented and unrivaled.
Perhaps, only the legendary Sword Emperor, whose existence was uncertain, could outshine him.
Just three days.
He had cultivated a top-level sword technique to the minor completion stage.
"Good, good, good! Your talent surpasses even my imagination. Twenty-two people came here before you, but the fastest one took six days to pass this part of the test, twice as long as you," the voice excitedly proclaimed, though the content made Shi Xiaole extra vigilant.
Twenty-two people, were they all Outer Heaven Demons, or...?
While pondering, a thirty-feet-tall and nine-feet-wide white light pillar suddenly appeared in front of Shi Xiaole. The surface of the column was divided into sections, each a yard apart, marked by black light lines emitting an astonishing mysterious aura.
"This is the third part of the test, to gauge the level of your Vigorous Air. Don’t use any techniques, just strike with pure palm energy. Of the previous twenty-two people, the highest reached the third section," the voice said with a hint of amazement.
As if worrying that Shi Xiaole would not understand, the voice elaborated, "Let me put it this way: this Vigorous Air column was made according to the standards of the Martial World sixteen thousand years ago. Reaching the first section means that the quality of your Vigorous Air could be ranked within the top ten thousand back then."
"Reaching the second section could rank you within the top one thousand."
"The third section, within the top one hundred."
"The fourth section, within the top fifty."
"The fifth section, within the top thirty."
"The sixth section, within the top twenty."
"The seventh section, within the top ten."
"And the eighth section represented the third highest expert at that time, Dao Jisheng’s level. The second section corresponded to the Witch Queen’s level. As for the first section, it represented the level of the Holy Monarch!"
Shi Xiaole’s heart trembled wildly as he listened.
It was widely acknowledged that before the first great battle between heaven and earth, the martial standard of the East Victory world had reached its peak, far surpassing the present. The amount of prowess required to be among the top ten thousand then would definitely be at the level of an unparalleled master now.
As for the top one thousand and five hundred, they would be considered peerless experts.
But what truly moved Shi Xiaole were the names of the top three.
Dao Jisheng, he had heard of him; behind the stone gates of the Witch Queen’s temple, the Witch Queen herself had inscribed that Dao Jisheng had betrayed the East Victory continent (Chapter 997).
The Witch Queen didn’t even need to be mentioned, but he hadn’t anticipated she was so formidable, being the second highest expert of that time.
And the name Holy Monarch was like a depth charge exploding, ringing in Shi Xiaole’s ears and making him dazed for quite a while. Was he truly the number one figure in the world?
Recalling how Shi Xuanzhong singly fought against three mighty Outer Heaven invaders, perhaps only someone of that caliber would be universally recognized.
Suddenly, Shi Xiaole frowned.
Something didn’t add up, if the Holy Monarch was the number one under heaven, then why were his subordinates, the Three Great Divine Generals of Sun, Moon, and Star, only at the Fake Sky Origin Realm? It didn’t make sense.
"Chosen one, begin," the voice urged.
The voice fell, interrupting Shi Xiaole’s thoughts.
Taking a deep breath, Shi Xiaole channeled his energy to its full capacity and pushed out with a palm. He too wanted to see, what level his Vigorous Air was at when placed sixteen thousand years ago.
Boom!
The force of his palm struck the white pillar of light. With the naked eye, one could see the bottommost grid light up brightly, followed by the second, then slowly climbing to the third grid without stopping, inching its way up.
In the end, the light stopped at the three and a half grid mark.
This meant that Shi Xiaole’s Vigorous Air level, even if placed in the martial peak era of that time, would rank between the top one hundred and top fifty, roughly around seventy.
The voice remained silent for a long time.
Although it was merely a spirit of the Array System, it knew how terrifying this result was.
A Vigorous Air level around seventy did not mean his strength was also around seventy, but it at least proved that Shi Xiaole still had immense room for improvement.
You see, Shi Xiaole wasn’t even a Sky Origin Realm expert and hadn’t yet undergone the higher-level baptism of heaven and earth.
Should he go through that step, his Vigorous Air level would further increase, and with endless years of cultivation to follow, it was unimaginable what his ultimate achievements would be.
Perhaps, he could stand shoulder to shoulder with the top three.
The white pillar of light vanished, replaced by ten Humanoid Light Shadows.
"This is the fourth trial, testing your combat strength. Each Humanoid Light Shadow possesses the strength of a Forbidden Martial Emperor. Fortunate one, let me see what miracle you can create in this trial."
As soon as the voice ended, the ten Humanoid Light Shadows surrounding Shi Xiaole rushed forward, with swords and sabers, fists and palms being wielded together. The strength of these figures could almost match the intermediate fifty emperors, not inferior to the likes of the Five Elements Axe Emperor.
If the ten joined forces, even someone like Xuanyuan Di would struggle to confront them easily.
The Cleansing Evil Sword was unsheathed, and Shi Xiaole lashed out with continuous strikes of his long sword.
Hissss...
A quarter of an hour later, all ten Humanoid Light Shadows had dissipated, of course, Shi Xiaole too was not lightly wounded, but with the martial path of life and death within him, it didn’t significantly affect his fighting power.
Soon, twenty Humanoid Light Shadows appeared, the same in strength but double in number, and their lethality increased several-fold.
Shi Xiaole promptly executed the Sword Realm.
In a one-on-one fight, the influence of the Sword Realm wasn’t that considerable, but in a group battle, especially against those less powerful than oneself, the Sword Realm was nothing short of a massive weapon of destruction.
Every small influence, caught in Shi Xiaole’s eyes, would be magnified infinitely, turning into a fatal flaw for the opponent.
Another quarter of an hour passed, and all twenty Humanoid Light Shadows were vanquished, with Shi Xiaole appearing even more at ease than before.
Thirty.
Forty.
Fifty.
As the number of Humanoid Light Shadows continued to increase, so too did the pressure on Shi Xiaole. He paid a higher price with each group he dispatched, his Sword Realm and the martial path of life and death slowly reaching their limits.
With a swing of his sword.
The hundredth Humanoid Light Shadow fell, and Shi Xiaole was bathed in blood, the balance of the martial path of life and death disrupted, his Vigorous Air depleted, causing the power of the Sword Realm to plummet.
He switched to using Spiritual Path attacks and coupled them with Sword Controlling Skill to hold his own, barely managing to drag out time and narrowly recovering thirty percent of his power, defeating the next batch of Humanoid Light Shadows.
But by this point, Shi Xiaole was utterly drained, unable to kill any further.
This time, the voice took a long time to speak. After a while, it said, "Fortunate one, do you know that among the twenty-two people before you, the strongest one only withstood attacks from eighty Humanoid Light Shadows?"
"Although the Humanoid Light Shadows they faced were stronger than those you did, they themselves were at the Sky Origin Realm level. If we talk about fighting ability within the same realm, you are at least two or three grades higher than them."
The spirit of the Array System couldn’t help but be astounded.
Sky Origin Realm experts are rare in any era, and even in the martial peak sixteen thousand years ago, only nearly a hundred were born.
They were already paragons among geniuses, and to be two or three grades above a paragon—what could that be? It was beyond imagination. If the Supreme Lords who jointly created East Victory saw this, it’s unknowable what they would think.
Shi Xiaole sat cross-legged on the ground, returning to his peak condition after a few 2-hour periods.
"The next is the fifth challenge, which should not have appeared, but your performance in the previous four challenges has been much better than the highest result preset by the Supreme Lords, so this is both a test and an extra reward."
The voice said, "Fortunate one, do you know about soul power? After breaking through to the Sky Origin Realm, the unification of the Spiritual Path and the martial path allows warriors to harness deeper soul power. And it is soul power that is the key to comprehending the Supreme Great Path."
"Conversely, the more one is exposed to the Supreme Great Path, the more sensitive the body’s soul power becomes. Thus, the fifth challenge lets you perceive the Supreme Path, though the time is very short, just seven days. Treasure this opportunity well."
Even for a Sky Origin Realm Supreme Lord, it’s no simple feat to communicate with the Supreme Great Path, let alone capture it—it’s a far-fetched dream.
However, unluckily, when the land of Fate was split into three parts, a great amount of aura of the Supreme Great Path leaked out. The top masters of East Victory, the Array System Grandmasters, used all their might and lifelong methods to intercept just a small portion of it.
Most of it was utilized by the Supreme Lords, and the leftovers were preserved in East Victory, agreed to be left for a future marvel with astonishing talent.
In the eyes of the spirit of the Array System, Shi Xiaole’s innate gift was unmatched in history, even close to rivaling that of the Holy Monarch—and perhaps he was the most outstanding genius of the post-Holy Monarch era.
Giving this opportunity to him was entirely fitting.
Without waiting for Shi Xiaole to speak, an incredibly rich aura of the Supreme Sword Way enveloped him. Compared to the aura of the Supreme Sword Way from the Heavenly Sword Peak, this was simply insignificant.
This must be the aura from a higher place in the land of Fate!
