"The next practical combat match will be Xu Jie of Second-Year Class Three versus a Bloodthirsty Wolf Demon! Xu Jie, begin warming up. The practical combat assessment will begin in ten minutes!"
The shrill announcement blaring from the university broadcast made Xu Jie's head throb as if it were splitting apart in the lounge.
Where was this?
Hadn't he been in the jungles of Southeast Asia, locked in a firefight with his enemies?
Xu Jie only remembered that, at the very last moment, he had personally killed his sworn foe. Then the ground around him had begun to shake violently, as though a magnitude-ten earthquake had struck.
Then, when he regained consciousness, he had arrived in this unfamiliar place.
The next instant, a torrent of chaotic memories surged into his mind, making the veins on Xu Jie's forehead bulge wildly.
A High Martial World, where demons and monsters ran rampant, foreign realms invaded, and martial artists reigned supreme!
The previous owner of this body had been a second-year student at a Martial Arts University. His talent had been mediocre, his parents divorced, and he had grown up following his father, who worked as a mercenary.
Not long ago, Xu Jie's father had died outside the city, supposedly at the jaws of Demonic Beasts.
As a martial artist mercenary, his father had placed his inheritance in trust before his death, leaving it to his son Xu Jie, who was still in his second year.
Up to this point, the memories had been fairly normal.
But what happened next was a little abstract...
Because Xu Jie's father had divorced his wife years ago, Xu Jie became an orphan after his father's death, left without anyone to rely on.
So, one of his father's distant relatives—so distant that they could barely be called related—had traveled all the way to Jincheng City to demand the inheritance in Xu Jie's hands.
In common terms, they wanted to devour an orphan's estate!
Naturally, the previous owner had refused to hand over his father's inheritance. Then that relative, who called himself something like Third Uncle-in-Law, had pulled some underhanded strings and manipulated things behind the scenes.
He had tried to use the Martial Arts University's monthly practical combat assessment to send Xu Jie straight into the claws of demons.
Xu Jie was currently only a Blood Moving Realm Third Layer martial artist, a First-Rank Low-Stage.
Before long, the opponent he had to face, that Bloodthirsty Wolf Demon, was a genuine First-Rank Mid-Stage demon normally reserved for fourth-year students.
Yet now, because of some heaven-defying lottery rules, it had become the opponent of a second-year student like him. If there wasn't some shady deal behind this, who would believe it?
So he had transmigrated?
Could the previous owner have been scared to death alive?
Otherwise, why would he have transmigrated here?
What trash!
What kind of grown man got scared to death by an enemy?
Xu Jie was thoroughly disdainful of that!
In his previous life, when he was twelve, human traffickers had sold him into Southeast Asia, a place known as a living hell.
When he was fourteen, Xu Jie seized an opportunity, killed a guard, and escaped the compound.
In the days that followed, he had not fled back home. Instead, he had voluntarily joined a local armed force and undergone brutal military training, all so he could take revenge on that compound!
For six full years, relying on sheer ruthlessness and incomparably cruel methods, Xu Jie had slaughtered that compound from top to bottom, from old to young, until almost no one survived.
A favor of a meal must be repaid; a grievance as small as an eye crack must be avenged! That was Xu Jie's creed!
Now that he had unexpectedly transmigrated and once again faced a life-and-death crisis, it was as ordinary as eating and drinking to him, incapable of stirring the slightest ripple in his heart.
Unfortunately, this world seemed to have no cigarettes!
If only he could take a drag right now...
Friends who frequently transmigrated should know that a transmigrator's standard equipment was a cheat.
Without a cheat, what kind of transmigration was that?
Why not just go straight to the underworld and drink Meng Po's soup?
"System, I know you're there. Stop hiding and save me already!"
Ding! The Life-Sacrifice System has been bound!
Host: Xu Jie Martial Realm: Blood Moving Realm Third Layer (First-Rank Low-Stage) Lifespan: Fifty-five years Available Lifespan: 0 Martial Art: Basic Stance Training (Minor Mastery) Martial Skill: Demon-Breaking Saber Art (Beginner)
Consume Lifespan to infinitely raise martial art realms!
Slaughter living beings to plunder their remaining Lifespan!
Reminder! Whenever the Lifespan consumed reaches a certain threshold, the system will conduct a draw!
Current progress (0/100)!
Note: The High Martial stage is set—come if you've got the life for it!
So that was how it was!
Xu Jie stroked his chin, revealing a cold, sinister smile.
Burning lifespan to grow stronger? Simple and brutal!
A cheat that suited him perfectly!
Wasn't it just risking his life?
"System, leave me just one year of life. Use the rest of my Lifespan however you want and raise the realms of both martial arts!"
After Xu Jie spoke, the number in his lifespan column began to plummet.
Fifty-five... forty-five... twenty... ten... three... one year!
At the same time, several notification chimes rang out in Xu Jie's mind.
Basic Stance Training (Major Mastery): You diligently practiced Basic Stance Training for five full years. In the sixth year, your Basic Stance Training broke through to Major Mastery.
Basic Stance Training (Peak): You continued practicing your stance training with unwavering perseverance. In the twelfth year, you broke through to the Peak realm.
Basic Stance Training (Perfection): Train through the bitter cold of the nine-day winter and the scorching heat of the three hottest summer periods! After thirty years of unremitting effort, your Basic Stance Training reached the Perfection realm! From then on, relying on the most basic cultivation method, your power of qi and blood grew with each passing day, and your martial realm entered the Blood Moving Realm Seventh Layer!
Demon-Breaking Saber Art (Minor Mastery): Like a tireless machine, you diligently practiced the Demon-Breaking Saber Art, swinging your saber at least fifty thousand times every day. At last, in the third year, you cultivated the saber art to Minor Mastery.
Demon-Breaking Saber Art (Major Mastery): Ten years flashed by. One morning, when you swung your saber once more, you felt that the battle saber in your hand was no longer an external object, but had become your arm.
You continued bitterly training the Demon-Breaking Saber Art for four more years. Unfortunately, your saber art fell into a bottleneck and never broke through again!
Thus, Xu Jie had consumed fifty-four years of lifespan, raising Basic Stance Training to Perfection and the Demon-Breaking Saber Art to Major Mastery.
His martial realm had also broken through to the First-Rank High-Stage, the Blood-Moving Realm Seventh Layer!
An incomparable sense of power spread throughout his body. The blood within him boiled, surging endlessly like a mad dragon.
This method of burning lifespan did not seem to be a simple matter of adding points to improve himself.
Countless flashes of insight from countless days and nights spent practicing stances and drilling saber techniques flickered through Xu Jie's mind like a slideshow.
He lowered his head to look at the calluses that had appeared from nowhere on his palms, and one brow rose slightly.
A First-Rank Mid-Stage wolf demon, was it?
Xu Jie rose from the lounge and walked to the weapon rack beside him, casually picking up an alloy battle saber over four feet long.
The sharp blade reflected Xu Jie's hard, cold young face, as well as those utterly frigid eyes.
"Two minutes remain until the practical combat assessment! Second-year student Xu Jie, please prepare!"
The announcement sounded through the lounge once more.
Xu Jie flicked his saber in a flourish and strode to the lounge door, calmly waiting for the slaughter to come.
"Xu Jie!"
Just then, a crisp female voice, as clear as a lark's song, rang out from the doorway at the other end of the lounge.
Xu Jie turned his head slightly and glanced at his "good little sister," Xu Shishi. A glimmer of killing intent flashed through his eyes.
This beautiful young girl with a delicate, alluring figure was the daughter of that absurdly distant relative of Xu Jie's.
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