The Killing Field

The Killing Field—a place ideally suited for cultivation.

For a martial artist to grow stronger, combat was an indispensable part of life. And the best kind was a fight between evenly matched opponents—a battle that kept you teetering on the brink of life and death!

But combat inevitably brought injuries and death. Before the Virtual Universe appeared, the enormous resources a normal martial artist needed to reach the peak, and the countless brushes with death along the way, were staggering.

Now, the Virtual Universe had helped most people get through their weakest stages, to some extent, while providing a stage on which they could display their talents. Compared with the brutal zero-sum game of raising people like poisonous insects, the Virtual Universe Company's competitive training was far gentler.

The Killing Field was the most cost-effective resource in the Virtual Universe Company's training system! As long as you were willing to spend enough, you could submit any request you wanted to the Virtual Universe System. For example, Lu Yan'an was a Second-Rank Planetary Level fighter with a Domain Second Layer. He could ask for an opponent who was also Second-Rank Planetary Level, but had a Third-Stage Domain. In reality, it was extremely hard to find an opponent so perfectly suited to him.

These kinds of opportunities were hard to come by in reality. But in the Virtual Universe's Killing Field, they were easy to arrange!

Of course...

The Virtual Universe still differed from reality. It couldn't give people the feeling of truly dying. No matter how lifelike it was, users still knew they couldn't actually die inside the Virtual Universe. That was why the Giant Axe Dojo had emerged as its counterpart, complementing the Killing Field.

"Lord Shen, is this the Killing Field?" Lu Yan'an asked as he entered a hall as vast as a city, addressing the figure in front of him.

"Yes, this is the Killing Field. See that 'blood drop' design on the wall? That's the Killing Field's emblem!" Lord Shen confirmed, pointing to the design on the hall's wall.

Lu Yan'an looked around carefully. The place was enormous, but there weren't many people here. Then again, the Killing Field had never been meant for ordinary people.

"Most people really can't afford this place. Planetary Level fighters have to pay a million Black Dragon Coins or seven hundred Ganwu Coins per day, and it costs even more for those above Planetary Level! Who can afford to spend that much?" Lu Yan'an said, wincing at the expense.

He was broke himself and had always relied on Lord Shen to support him. But the hundreds of thousands of Ganwu Coins wouldn't go far in the Killing Field—not even enough to last two years. And that was assuming he stayed at Planetary Level without breaking through. If he advanced, he'd go bankrupt on the spot!

"That's not a problem. Do you think a dignified Immortal Expert like me can't provide the resources for one Planetary Level fighter? Are you kidding?" Lord Shen said, looking exasperated at Lu Yan'an's complaints. Then he flapped his little wings and flew in front of Lu Yan'an, staring him in the eyes as he said earnestly:

"I'm an Immortal Expert, after all. Don't worry about this kind of thing. I've got plenty of resources." Without waiting for Lu Yan'an to respond, his tiny body flew back ahead of him to continue leading the way.

At the far end of the hall were a series of passageways.

"Walk down any one of these passageways, and you'll enter a Killing Space of your own," Lord Shen said quietly. "Choose whatever kind of opponent you want."

Lu Yan'an nodded.

He walked down one of the passageways. As he went, the space around him suddenly changed.

Lu Yan'an was standing on an asteroid, with a golden book in his hand. It looked as if it were made of metal. After flipping through it, he understood.

"So this is the Killing Space?"

"That's right!" Lord Shen's voice came from the Light Brain on Lu Yan'an's wrist. Evidently, inside the Killing Space, he could only accompany Lu Yan'an by entering as an Intelligent Life.

"This is where your cultivation really begins. Do your best! Catch up with your senior brother's progress as soon as possible. Tsk, a gap of more than three thousand years..." Lord Shen sounded rather amused. Clearly, he had no faith that Lu Yan'an could catch up with Feng Yunruo's cultivation.

Hearing that, Lu Yan'an didn't argue, but a fire burned inside him! Still, he knew that until he truly surpassed his senior brother, there was no point in saying anything. What good were pretty words? This was a world where only results mattered. Only strength could earn the respect of others!

With that in mind, Lu Yan'an composed himself. Once his emotions had settled, he shouted the most brazen challenge he could think of at the Killing Space:

"Give me a hundred First-Rank Planetary Level martial artists with a First-Stage Domain as my opponents! I want to fight to my heart's content!"

Lu Yan'an himself was only a First-Rank Planetary Level fighter with a First-Stage Domain. Asking for a hundred opponents of the same level was basically asking for a beating! The outcome was easy to predict.

The Killing Space began to change. The starry sky vanished, replaced by a vast desert. Lu Yan'an stood on the sandy ground, dressed in plain battle clothes, with no weapon in hand. In the distant sky, a dense crowd appeared, all dressed in white battle clothes and carrying various weapons. They all shared one trait: a faint Domain power surrounded them. Lu Yan'an grinned and charged toward them. The next instant, he was swept up in combat.

Though perhaps it couldn't be called a fight. Lu Yan'an was simply taking a beating! And he wasn't swept up in it for even two seconds—not that he lasted two seconds! Against a hundred opponents of the same level, all with their Domains fully deployed, any resistance was a joke!

At the first second, their Domains collided. Before the second second had even begun, Lu Yan'an was already taking a beating. By the time the second second arrived, he was gone!

Lu Yan'an had just tried to show off in front of Lord Shen, only to be humiliated the next moment. The whole thing had played out like a comedy routine! Even someone naturally thick-skinned couldn't take that! Lu Yan'an returned to his starting point, his face burning red, while Lord Shen's merciless laughter rang in his ears. "Lu Yan'an, are you trying to kill me with laughter?"

He could already picture Lord Shen doubling over with laughter. Even his composure couldn't withstand this top-tier assault on both his mind and body, so he hurriedly changed the subject. "Lord Shen, didn't I practice the Illusion Martial Artist Secret Manual before? Why doesn't it seem to have had any effect?"

Lord Shen didn't call him out for changing the subject. Instead, he answered directly. "Why would you practice illusion techniques in the Killing Field? This place is meant to train your martial skills. Unless your mental power is strong enough to affect reality, the simulated martial artists are immune to illusions!"

"In here, you have only your martial skills, so focus on the fundamentals! A hundred martial artists at your level, with exactly the same level of Domain comprehension—how do you expect to beat them? With your head?"

"Here's another harsh truth. It'd already be impressive if you could beat one such simulation. You're a country bumpkin from an ordinary planet, with the worst possible foundation and no secret techniques under your belt. With a starting point like that, you'd better take it one step at a time..."

After hearing Lord Shen's explanation, Lu Yan'an suddenly understood. He was just a country bumpkin who had only recently left his planet. Even if he knew a lot about this world, what did that matter? Before he had the strength, what gave him the right to be arrogant about the universe? In the original story, Master of Yunmo Star Hu Yanbo had said that no matter how powerful you became, you must always hold the universe in awe!

Ever since he received Pu Ti's inheritance on Yuan Planet, that arrogant, giddy feeling had filled his heart. After all, how many Planetary Level fighters had a Domain? How many received a fitting inheritance from the universe? And how many were transmigrators? Lu Yan'an was the only one who had all three kinds of fortune!

But reality had knocked some sense into him. Until he became a true expert, he had no special status. He was just an ordinary person who had only recently entered the universe. This wasn't some virtual world called Swallowed Star, but a real universe—one he could see and touch. There were no shortcuts to the top here. Only steady accumulation and keeping one's feet on the ground!

Having seen through the true nature of the world, Lu Yan'an officially entered the first stage of spiritual cultivation—Clear Heart Seeing Nature! His heart was like a clear mirror, untouched by a speck of dust; it was honed like a blade, ready to cut through every obstacle. Now, with no other emotions holding him back, he began to choose his cultivation techniques in earnest.

Lord Shen had been quietly watching from the side. He noticed that Lu Yan'an's entire bearing had changed in an instant! Just moments ago, he had seemed flighty and frivolous. Now, he was steady and grounded. Lord Shen gave an approving nod. At the same time, a thought surfaced in his mind, impossible to suppress: Could this kid really surpass Feng Yunruo one day?