Chapter 964: Chapter 963 Breaking Through to Rescue_1
"Uncle Wang knew my father?"
Shi Xiaole was greatly shocked.
Originally, from what Ling Jingsi had told him, he deduced that Shi Xuanzhong’s age was over a thousand years, but Uncle Wang’s words forced him to overturn his previous assumptions.
This was because the alliance from the Golden Abyss had existed for over five thousand years, and very few people were aware of it. Shi Xiaole also learned of some one-sided insider information through the notebooks of the Martial Emperors from the Void Origin Realm.
However, the lifespan of a Martial Emperor from the Void Origin Realm was three thousand five hundred years, and no one could exceed this limit. If Uncle Wang wasn’t deceiving him, what kind of realm did Shi Xuanzhong belong to?
The fabled Sky Origin Realm that mortals could not possibly reach?
"Young man, don’t look at this old man like that, hehe, this old man learned of the Holy Monarch’s identity through the secret records of my clan and was fortunate enough to have seen a portrait of the Holy Monarch. In this world, the number of people who could recognize him definitely would not surpass ten."
After a long while, Shi Xiaole finally calmed down, then couldn’t help but ask again, "What was the great conflict between the righteous and the demons over six hundred years ago, when the Golden Abyss alliance still existed, how could the Martial Emperors from the Void Origin Realm take action?"
Uncle Wang’s mouth twitched slightly.
"There are too many talents in this world. Every hundred years, in places unknown to the common people, a few Martial Emperors from the Void Origin Realm would always emerge, sometimes a handful, sometimes as many as dozens. It’s just that because of the existence of the Golden Abyss alliance, the Void Origin Realm did not stand out, creating the illusion that masters of this realm would not appear for one hundred years. This world is much larger than what ordinary folks of the Martial World could ever imagine, just the depths of the South Sea alone..."
He paused briefly before continuing, "However, the number of Martial Emperors from the Void Origin Realm that East Victory Continent can accommodate is limited, and even the Golden Abyss alliance suffered a backlash due to too many Martial Emperors from the Void Origin Realm existing at once. To prevent the spread of the impact, the Holy Monarch and a few other masters joined forces to restrain the Golden Abyss alliance."
Shi Xiaole took a deep breath.
The rest of the words were not clearly stated by Uncle Wang, but he could guess them. So that great conflict between the righteous and the demons was actually orchestrated by top figures, with the purpose of forming internal consumption to stabilize East Victory Continent.
This terrible insider information, once spread out, would certainly cause chaos in the world!
After a long time, Shi Xiaole spoke softly, "Uncle Wang, can you tell me about the Holy Monarch?"
Now it was Uncle Wang’s turn to be surprised, but he only hesitated for a moment before he began to reveal everything.
It was a pity that the information he had was obviously not complete. He only knew that Shi Xuanzhong came from a place called Peach Blossom Village, which coincided with Ling Jingsi’s statement. However, where exactly Peach Blossom Village was located remained a mystery to him.
Even Shi Xuanzhong’s level of cultivation and strength were unclear; in Uncle Wang’s words, the Holy Monarch essentially had no specifics to define him.
"Uncle Wang, how am I supposed to save you?"
Shi Xiaole was always swift as lightning and wind. From the clues he had before, it was impossible for the other party to deceive him, nor was there a need to. Otherwise, even God himself would be guilty. But with God’s strength, why would he need to take such a roundabout path?
Uncle Wang chuckled bitterly, "See those stone pillars? They can generate projections of sentience. You just need to defeat these sentience projections."
Shi Xiaole surmised that this matter would not be simple, or rather, it would be extremely difficult. Otherwise, with Uncle Wang’s knowledge, he wouldn’t have such an expression.
But this instead sparked Shi Xiaole’s interest; he was quite keen to see just how challenging the test set by God actually was.
Leaping forward, as soon as Shi Xiaole entered the square area formed by the first stone pillar, a blurry silhouette immediately appeared in front of him, its aura no weaker than his own.
"It wouldn’t be so easy, would it."
Uncle Wang shook his head to himself.
Among generations of prodigies in the Martial World, there were always a few who could stand out and look down upon their peers. The Holy Monarch was undoubtedly one of them, and God was no less outstanding in comparison.
At least up until now in the development of martial civilization, if one had to rank all the unparalleled experts in history, God would certainly be among the foremost.
As the son of the Holy Monarch, Shi Xiaole’s innate strength should not be poor, but it also depended on who he was compared to. To pass God’s trial, perhaps...
Uncle Wang watched intently, his expression tense.
It was a deep mansion with mottled walls.
A dark-clothed youth with thick brows and big rolling eyes was leisurely lying on a rocking chair, admiring the sunset at the horizon. On the round table beside the rocking chair, there was a cup of tea and stacks of exquisitely prepared pastries and fruits.
"Eh, someone is trying to save that sodden monk."
The dark-clothed youth’s voice suddenly rang out, startling the manservant beside him into pricking up his ears.
"Since he passed the Spirit-shifting Stone, his talent must not be too poor. Hopefully, he can pass a few more tests."
The dark-clothed youth spoke indifferently.
The manservant replied with disdain and arrogance, "Given the master’s unparalleled methods, it’s nearly impossible for that person to successfully rescue someone."
The dark-clothed youth continued nonchalantly, "If we follow the actual process, how many people in this world could pass the tests? Forget it, let him pass the fifth one. If he can make it through the fifth challenge, I’ll open a backdoor and let the sodden monk out; after all, it’s my fault in the first place."
"The master not only has an unsurpassed talent for all eternity but also embodies immeasurable kindness and love. This truly makes your subordinate admire you endlessly," said the manservant rigidly, as if he were reciting the most correct thing in the entire world, despite it being obvious flattery.
Yet the dark-clothed youth showed no hint of embarrassment, completely at ease.
Within the stone pillar.
The blurry silhouette drew its sword, stabbing fiercely at Shi Xiaole. The cultivation at the level of the Divine Border Realm; to Shi Xiaole, however, that strike could instantly kill the weakest Martial Emperor from the Void Origin Realm.
"Could it be..."
A bizarre thought flashed through his mind, but Shi Xiaole’s movements were not slow. He drew his sword, swung it, and sheathed it in one clean sweep, leaving no afterimage in mid-air, not even a trace of Sword Qi.
In the silence, the blurry silhouette shattered into specks of light.
With the restriction gone, Shi Xiaole proceeded towards the next, larger, square-shaped enclosure of stone pillars.
This time there were two blurry silhouettes, each emitting an aura identical to Shi Xiaole’s own.
"As expected."
This is the second circle of stone pillars, with seven more ahead, so according to the current calculation, there will be nine swordsmen as powerful as one’s self appearing in the end.
Defeating them would mean passing the trial.
Difficult, indeed as difficult as ascending to heaven!
Defeating one’s self is already something that 99% of people can’t do, defeating two would be enough to become famous throughout the Martial World, defeating three, one should be considered a peerless genius.
In the past, Shi Xiaole, at best, could only defeat six.
Unfortunately, ever since he accepted the harsh training of the old man who played the qin, that number changed neatly to nine, the limit seen by the old man.
It was remembered that the old man had mentioned someone who faced nine by himself, and this place coincidentally matched that pattern, could it be, that the God was none other than the old man who played the qin?
Swish! Swish!
Two streaks of sword light, one to the left and one to the right, one above and one below, thrust at him at different speeds, dodging this one would inevitably lead to being unable to avoid the other. And under the constraint of strength, it was impossible for one facing the trial to defeat both with a single deadly move.
Shi Xiaole didn’t dodge, as Sword Qi drew a line that seemed both straight and curved in front of him, at both ends of the line, two blurred shadows instantly dissipated.
It was not a deadly move, yet it vanquished two in an instant.
The third circle of stone pillars.
A change in quantity precipitates a qualitative transformation, three blurred shadows finally presented a threat to Shi Xiaole, forcing him to use three swords.
"Brilliant swordsmanship."
Uncle Wang was stunned for a moment, then he nodded in agreement.
He hadn’t expected Shi Xiaole to pass the challenges so effortlessly, completely with ease, but such performance was befitting of someone with the identity of the Holy Monarch’s son.
Moreover, the first three levels showed nothing much, the difficulty would increase explosively after the fourth level, only then could one’s true mettle be tested.
In Uncle Wang’s view, even the top talents of the golden generation could only break through the fifth level at best, and he wondered whether Shi Xiaole could match them.
The fourth circle of stone pillars.
Shi Xiaole used thirteen swords.
Just as Uncle Wang had predicted, with each additional one, the difficulty of cutting them down didn’t just double but increased several fold, and the further he went, the more exaggerated the increase in difficulty became.
"So fast?"
In the mottled courtyard, the teenager clad in black was slightly surprised, and a rare hint of interest flickered in his indifferent large eyes.
He saw him flick his fingers lightly, and on the surface of a standing stone not far away, a tangible image suddenly appeared, showing a supremely handsome young man in green, with a long sword hanging from his waist, surrounded by five menacing blurred shadows.
The young servant glanced furtively at the boy in black.
In a century, this was the first time his master had used the Synchronized Shadow Formation. It should be known that not even the top ten masters of the Daxia Martial World who entered the tomb managed to arouse the master’s interest.
However, watching the young man in green reach the fifth level so effortlessly made it understandable. No one knew better than Yan Zhen how twisted this test was.
Unconsciously, Yan Zhen’s expression underwent a subtle change.
"What do you think, how many moves will he use this time?"
The boy in black watched the images on the stone wall.
Yan Zhen thought for a moment and said, "Between fifty and sixty moves."
"You seem quite optimistic about him."
When Yan Zhen had passed the fifth level, he had used two thousand and eight hundred moves, and had nearly been half-crippled himself. But he predicted Shi Xiaole would only need sixty moves to pass, which showed that his arrogance had not blinded him.
However...
The boy in black chuckled.
The five blurred shadows charged at him in two waves, with some employing long-distance deadly moves, some opting for close combat, some lying in wait for a sneak attack, and others simply watching and waiting for change.
If he were to still take the approach of using unchanging strategies against the ever-changing, Shi Xiaole would undoubtedly fall into a passive state, even though he would still emerge victorious.
Whoosh!
The five blurred shadows were fast, but Shi Xiaole was faster. While slaying the first one with a sword, he moved sideways in an unbelievable angle to take down the second one, then used three more swords to defeat the third one.
The fourth and fifth were no longer a threat to him, and he finished them with three swords.
In total, the entire process took eight swords, five fewer than the fourth level.
"This guy!"
Yan Zhen, whose expression was normally as unreadable as a poker face, finally showed a look of being moved.
Meanwhile, the boy in black burst into laughter, slapping his thigh and exclaiming how interesting it was.
"I actually misjudged!"
Uncle Wang was also stunned by Shi Xiaole’s performance.
Even those of the golden generation would need at least a few thousand moves to get past the fifth level. Of course, this didn’t mean their gap with Shi Xiaole was hundreds of times apart, because when it comes to combat, just being slightly off could mean a difference of dozens or hundreds of moves.
But regardless, one must admit, Shi Xiaole was at least two notches stronger than the golden generation.
