Chapter 262: Chapter 262: Passing Four Levels, Receiving Rewards
Upon reaching the third stage, which was the inner area of the eerie bamboo forest, the bamboos were as red as blood, and the number of people was several times less than the second stage. Every encounter was exceedingly dangerous.
Shi Xiaole was on full alert.
Those who had passed the second stage had cultivation levels around the fourth or fifth tier of Qi Absorption. Their combat skills were superb, and at the very least, they had all reached the pinnacle state of unity between man and weapon.
There were individual cases where some had even touched the weapon heart realm.
It should be noted that cultivation level and the state of weapon proficiency aren’t directly related. The cultivation level reflects one’s aptitude, while the state of weapon proficiency is related to aptitude but not absolutely so.
Many martial world guests who are in their forties, fifties, or even sixties can’t breakthrough to the Spiritual-Passage Realm due to their limited aptitude. However, their years of combat experiences and realizations are not useless.
Some people continually accumulate experience until they touch the weapon heart realm.
Of course, such people are few and far between, one in ten thousand. Looking at the numerous martial world practitioners in Qingxue State, only a few hundred people make it to the third area of the eerie bamboo forest.
Paired with their cultivation level, Shi Xiaole didn’t have the confidence to defeat them. Luckily, the third stage was vast, and he only occasionally encountered someone, which he always managed to avoid in advance.
Whoosh!
A whip embedded with bone spurs came curling from a distance, piercing through the afterimage Shi Xiaole left in place. The man twisted his wrist, and the bone-spur whip reversed direction, penetrating a tree as thick as three people hugging each other.
"I recall we have no feud."
Having incorporated 30% of the Wind Intent Realm into the Bird Crossing Skill, Shi Xiaole twisted and flipped around. Even so, he was nearly hit by the bone spur whip several times.
"Do I need a reason to kill you?"
The man’s face was masked, and he deliberately kept his voice low.
Though the eerie bamboo forest had four entrances, when reaching its inner areas, martial world travelers and sect experts of the same realm would inevitably encounter each other. Many would choose a target to strike, killing and looting.
Shi Xiaole entered from the southern side, indicating he is not a sect disciple. Naturally, the killers didn’t hold back.
"Lead the army straight on, easily warding off a hundred stings."
After several unsuccessful attacks, the masked man was as furious as he was humiliated. With the full unleashing of his fourth-tier Xuan Qi, the bone-spur whip began to twist like a python. Every time it writhed, subtle ripples would spread out in all directions.
A green sword net protected Shi Xiaole, resembling a green fish swimming in ripples. Each breath took the impact of countless whip ripples.
"Puff."
The sword net broke, causing Shi Xiaole’s blood to churn. He suppressed the metallic sweetness in his throat, took a forward leap and landed above the third-stage array.
"You think you’re safe now? When you walk down from the third stage, there’s no escaping my palm."
Swinging his whip, the masked man kept laughing coldly.
He didn’t believe that Shi Xiaole could pass the third stage. His only concern was attracting attention from other practitioners in the area, thus making it impossible to monopolize Shi Xiaole’s belongings.
"I’ll remember you."
Shi Xiaole studied the masked man closely as murderous intent simmered in his heart. If his luck hadn’t held and he hadn’t arrived at the nearby array, he could have been severely defeated. In the fierce bamboo forest, he would have been unable to take a step.
"Heh, dare to be arrogant with me?"
The masked man squinted his eyes, not paying Shi Xiaole any mind.
Suppressing his murderous intent, Shi Xiaole manipulated his cultivation. Immediately, sixteen stone statues simultaneously rushed at him.
The number of stone statues in the third stage was double the second stage, with eight of them even wielding weapons.
For a moment, a surge of fists, palm force, blade light, and sword shadows seemed like a surging tide, enveloping Shi Xiaole in all directions, leaving him nowhere to escape.
Due to the grid layout, Shi Xiaole could only endure the assault from eight statues at a time within a single grid space. But the combination of stone statues was too varied, capable of both long-range and close combat. Any slight lapse might throw off one’s balance.
The masked man roared with laughter.
With his combat skills, he only managed to block twelve moves in the third stage. He was keen to see how long Shi Xiaole could hold out.
In the midst of a storm-like assault, Shi Xiaole’s mind was extremely clear. He had elevated his Sword Heart to 60%, rotating his body, he shaped a range of Qingyang Sword Qis.
After a few moves, Shi Xiaole quickly noticed that the attacking power of each stone statue was 50% stronger than the second stage and twice as strong as the first stage. Reference: 00:43 Paired with sixteen stone statues, their combined force, if well deployed, could easily double again. It was a formidable stage indeed, where most people could not pass; being able to withstand ten moves would already be considered an achievement.
Clang, clang, clang....
If the attack of the stone statues is likened to a tide, then Shi Xiaole is the reef in the tide, weathering the storm, standing resolute and unyielding. In the eyes of the masked man, Shi Xiaole’s attacking speed was three times that of the stone statues. Coupled with his clever movement and timely responses, he had firmly stabilized the situation.
"I will kill you!"
The contempt in the masked man’s eyes was gone, replaced by a chilling murderous intent.
"If I use 70% Sword Heart, I can easily pass. But that would defeat the purpose of training. I will use 60% Sword Heart to pass."
It was the 70% Sword Heart that helped Guan Fei of the Guan Family pass the third stage. But Shi Xiaole wasn’t satisfied with this. If he used the same method, he would consider it a failure.
Gradually, the world in Shi Xiaole’s eyes lost its color and sound. The only thing that existed was a mass of black. The black was peeled off layer by layer, revealing the movement trajectory of the sixteen stone statues.
Before the thought had risen, the long sword Shi Xiaole held was already pointed out. The sword intent condensed to the extreme, and then suddenly exploded, freezing the first statue.
After three moves, the second statue froze, followed by the third and fourth...
The whole process was like unraveling a knot. It got easier later on. Ding, ding, ding, with three strokes of the sword, all sixteen stone statues froze in place.
"I remember your eyes, your figure. Once I come out, I will kill you immediately."
Standing on a stone statue, Shi Xiaole took a final look at the man before heading for the fourth stage.
The masked figure’s eyes contracted sharply, his veiled face dark and calm. He coldly sneered, "We’ll see if you’ll make it out alive. You’re nothing but a presumptuous bastard."
The masked figure had once murdered a child of a grandmaster in the Spiritual-Passage Realm. Over the years, it had been challenging for him to deal with the grandmasters dispatched for revenge, let alone leaving the peculiar bamboo forest.
As for this youngster, he must be eliminated before his skills could advance!
Having thought it through, the masked figure leapt into the bamboo forest.
The fourth gate area was far more secluded and dangerous than the third. Located within the inner circle, its smaller area made it easier to encounter formidable opponents.
Luckily, Shi Xiaole didn’t encounter anyone looking for trouble this time and successfully entered the fourth gate’s stone statue array. The number of stone statues had indeed reached thirty-two, and sixteen of them were armed.
Thunk...
The fierce battles continued.
After just three moves, Shi Xiaole found that 60% of his Sword Heart couldn’t hold up. The combination of attacks from the thirty-two stone statues was overwhelming, each one twice as powerful as those in the third gate. The terrifying onslaught would make any martial artist of the same realm lose courage.
Sixty-five percent.
Seventy percent.
Seventy-five percent.
Only when Shi Xiaole had raised his Sword Heart to seventy-five percent did he stop feeling so overwhelmed. But that was still not enough to claim victory.
"Who is this person that managed to hold out for so many moves?"
The fourth gate area was small and sparsely populated, so any commotion would immediately alert nearby individuals. Soon, an elder who wore a sword rushed over.
"This person is younger than Guan Fei of the Guan family, but his fighting skills are much more advanced."
An expression of undisguised astonishment crossed the elder’s face.
He himself had attempted the fourth gate several times, managing to hold out for only fifteen moves at best. As for Guan Fei, he was knocked down just after two moves.
Others were more or less the same. If one disregarded the masters who had fully mastered their sword intent, in the past three years, no one in the martial world of Qingxue State could match Shi Xiaole.
Fifty moves.
Sixty moves.
"He’s almost done."
By the seventy-ninth move, Elder Saber seemed to see Shi Xiaole being defeated. But in the next moment, Shi Xiaole’s sword speed suddenly sped up, showing no signs of faltering.
Elder Saber’s old eyes widened, speechless.
"This is my limit."
Shi Xiaole managed to push his Sword Heart to an unprecedented eighty percent. The sword shadows he swung seemed to merge with the wind, indistinguishable from each other. The weaknesses he couldn’t exploit before were now broken through, one by one.
After a grueling bout of three hundred and sixty-nine moves, Shi Xiaole somehow passed the fourth gate.
"May I ask for the young swordsman’s name?"
Elder Saber couldn’t help but ask.
Shi Xiaole didn’t answer; his figure disappeared into the fog of the array system.
"Such a cautious young man, he must be afraid of me causing him harm."
An ironic smile crept onto Elder Saber’s face.
"Elder Saber, what happened here?"
Just then, three figures sped over. Two of them were middle-aged men, around fifty years old, and the other was a youth with an ordinary face but lavish attire.
The middle-aged man on the left asked, "Elder Saber, did someone just pass the fourth gate?"
With a poker face, Elder Saber chuckled, "Do you think that’s possible? The person who attempted the challenge just now failed and has left."
The three of them laughed heartily.
Only those who had spent a considerable amount of time here knew how hard it was to pass the fourth gate. They even speculated that only a master who had reached eighty-five percent of Sword Heart would have a chance.
Unfortunately, such individuals were scarce.
According to longstanding martial world conventions, masters who could reach eighty-five percent of their Sword Heart were usually around fifty-five years of age. Since the lifespan of a martial artist below the Spiritual-Passage Realm was no different from an ordinary person, one could count all the martial artists of this level in the Qingxue State on their fingers, and any peers would know them well.
If it had been one of them, Elder Saber wouldn’t have denied it.
"In my opinion, among the younger generation, the one most likely to pass the fourth gate and master the Sword Heart is undoubtedly Guan, the swordsman from the Guan family."
The middle-aged man on the right looked at the boy with an ordinary face.
This person was Guan Fei of the Guan family.
"You flatter me. The martial world is full of exceptional talents, and I dare not be conceited."
Although Guan Fei said that, there was clearly a dismissive glint in the depths of his eyes.
At the edge of the fourth gate, instead of jumping down as usual, Shi Xiaole crouched on the stone slab and began tapping on it.
Earlier, he had heard a sound from a Sound Recording Stone, informing him that he met the standard of the Four Symbols Sect’s top disciples and would receive a reward for passing the gate.
